1616 T. Roe Let. 14 Feb. in (1899) I. 134 I thought all India a China shop, and that I should furnish all my Frendes with rarietyes.
1727 J. Arbuthnot John Bull Postscr. in J. Swift et al. II. 211 How he set up a China-shop over-against Nic. Frog.
1847 W. M. Thackeray (1848) xxxii. 287 Such a bull in a china-shop I never saw.