Chinese Export Silver & Far East Trade Information

[dognose]

SYCEE NO 23

Hong Kong




















Sycee NO 23 is likely to be the same Hong Kong maker, thought to be working c.1890-c.1920, who's mark is sometimes seen as S.C.




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[dognose]

KWAN HING

Hong Kong




Thought to have been working at Hong Kong during the period 1885-1910.

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[dognose]

YAMANAKA & Co.Ltd

Osaka, Kioto and 68, later, 127, New Bond Street, London



Yamanaka & Co.Ltd. - Osaka - 1904


Yamanaka & Co.Ltd. - London - 1920

The Japanese company, Yamanaka, were based at Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. Their overseas outlets, besides London, were at 254, Fifth Avenue, New York, and 234, Boylston Street, Boston.

Yamanaka & Co.Ltd. were granted the Royal Warrant by King George V on the 1st December 1919, and by Queen Mary on the 10th February 1920. Amongst their clientèle in the 1920's/1930's were Winston Churchill, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duke of Kent, and the Duke of Gloucester.

The London store was in the charge of Kumasaku Tomita from around 1900 until his retirement in 1922. The branch was noted as having fifteen employees (six Japanese, and nine British).



Yamanaka - 1901

Yamanaka displayed their wares at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 and the Glasgow Exhibition of 1901.

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[dognose]

Y. JIOMI

Teramachi Below Shijo, Kyoto



Y. Jiomi - Kyoto - 1894

The presumed mark of Y. Jiomi:




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[dognose]

MARUKI

6, Sukiyacho, Nihonbashi-ku, Tokyo



Maruki - Tokyo - 1894

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[dognose]

KEI-YEI-DO (KEIYEIDO) K. SANO

14, Shin-Yemoncho, Higashi-Nakadori, Nihonbashi, and at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo



Yamanaka & Co.Ltd. - London - 1904
Kei-Yei-Do - Tokyo - 1894



K. Sano (Keiyeido) - Tokyo - 1895

The business of K. Sano.

K. Sano (Keiyeido) were exhibitors at the Kyoto industrial exhibition of 1895.

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[dognose]

S. GOTO

Uchidacho Hatchome, Yokohama



S. Goto - Yokohama - 1895

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[dognose]

YAMAZAKI KAMEKICHI SHOTEN

Tohri-Nichome, Nihonbashi, Tokyo

Detail from a 1922 Tokyo Chamber of Commerce publication:


Yamazaki Kamekichi Shoten - Toyko - 1922

The above detail may refer to the business 'Shimizu Shoten' (see above post).

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[dognose]

ECHIGOYA S. IKEDA

313, Motomachi-Dori, Kobe



Echigoya S. Ikeda - Kobe - 1895

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[dognose]

AMANO WATCH & JEWELRY Co.Ltd.

7, Nichome, Sanjikkenbori, Kyobashi, Tokyo

Detail from a 1922 Tokyo Chamber of Commerce publication:



Amano Watch & Jewelry Co.Ltd - Tokyo - 1922

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[dognose]

J. WHITFIELD-HIRST

6, Barr Street, Fytche Square, Rangoon




J. Whitfield-Hirst - Rangoon - 1907



J. Whitfield-Hirst - Rangoon - 1909

When I started out for business this morning, right after capturing a chota haziri–(no, boys, that's not something to shoot at, that's a small breakfast that they give you in Rangoon before the regular 9 o'clock breakfast)–the last thing I was looking for was a Sunday-school story. As I never was in Burmah before I asked the proprietor of my hotel if there was anything doing in curios in Rangoon? "Why," he said, "you must see Hirst. He is headquarters in Burmah for curios. His place is only a few minutes' drive from this hotel." While waiting for my gharry mine host added: " I want to post you, Mr. Allen. You can't buy from native merchants in Rangoon without bargaining. Hirst is different. He is absolutely one price. Also he is peculiar. If you try to beat him down he might refuse to sell to you. He is an old Englishman, comes from good stock back home, and has very decided views on some things. Five years ago the Prince of Wales (now King George) was here in Rangoon with his suite, touring Burmah. They stopped at this hotel. The Prince's secretary sent word to Hirst that his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, would visit his store the next morning to buy some curios. The next day was Sunday. Hirst sent back this message : ' My compliments to the Prince of Wales, but tell him I would not sell goods on Sunday even to the King of England.' Hirst is headquarters in Burmah for curios, Mr. Allen, but don't try to dicker with him. You don't have to ; his goods and prices are right." "Say," I said to that hotel man, as a son of Ham, perched up on his driver's seat, came reigning up to the hotel steps, "will you kindly request your interpreter to tell this Jim Crow driver to push his horse as fast as it can go to Hirst's curio shop? I'm in a hurry to see a man in the Far East who has one price and who wouldn't sell to anyone on Sunday. Curios are my specialty. I'm looking for curios." I was dropped in front of Hirst's store in an incredibly short time. The interpreter must have delivered my directions right. As he shot them at that driver they sounded as if they would make anything go. I found Mr. Hirst to be a hale, hearty, jovial old English gentleman. I didn't buy everything he had. He has carved elephants' tusks, and other art pieces worth thousands of dollars for a single piece, and I had to leave something, because royalty, or representatives of royalty, might come to Rangoon almost any day, and Mr. Hirst must have something on hand to show them, for he has a large trade in Burmese curios with the crowned heads of Europe. But if his store doesn't look like a whirlwind had struck it after he ships out my order, I'm no judge of a windstorm. It was easy and pleasant to deal with Mr. Hirst. After a most pleasant forenoon's business was concluded, I said, "Mr. Hirst, I want your story for publication ; will you give it to me ?" With a humorous twinkle in his keen eyes he said, "Why, yes; if you think it's worth printing." In his home this afternoon he gave it to me. I only made one bad break. In showing me his private collection he handed me a most unique sword and told me its history. As I held it in my envious grasp–an old sword always does appeal to me–I said, "Er–er–er, this–this sword–you–you wouldn't – sell this sword would you, Mr. Hirst?" Did you ever offer to buy a fond young mother's baby? Mr. Hirst snatched that sword out of my hand and put it back in its place on the wall. He didn't swear–Mr. Hirst is a good man–but as his back was toward me I heard him telling God all about it, under his breath. He has a collection of Burmese spears ; he claims the only complete collection extant. He has been offered pounds sterling enough for that collection to give him a competency, even if the number of pounds offered were dollars instead of pounds. And here, dear children, is my Sunday-school story–aye, my Monday-school, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday-school story–that I ran up against in Rangoon today: Hirst is an Englishman, a Yorkshire Englishman. A Yorkshire Englishman and a Mayflower-Plymouth-Rock-New England American are a good deal alike. His ancestors were Yorkshire English farther back than he has ever tried to trace. His father was a well to do manufacturer of woolen blankets. In 1852, owing to a depression in business, his father, together with other woolen manufacturers, found themselves with accumulated stocks that they had to move. Mr. Hirst, then a young man in College, was chosen to go to America to try to unload those stocks. He went, and succeeded. He came back to England and apprenticed himself to the woolen trade. After his apprenticeship he went into business for himself, buying Australian wool, and selling it, largely in the United States. After an active business career of thirty years, in the wool business, during which time he visited the United States four times, at intervals, in the interest of his business, (he is as familiar with the geography of the eastern half of the United States as I am) he retired, with a competency. Owing to unfortunate investments in Australian gold mines, at the age of fifty-six he found himself "busted." He came to Burmah and prospected for gold throughout Burmah for ten years, and at the age of sixty-six found himself where he started his career as a gold prospector–still "busted." He then came to Rangoon, and in a most modest way, with a few pounds he was able to get together, started life over again, in the curio business. Here Mr. Hirst told of his struggle for a foothold in a new business–the old, old story, a fight for success that young men often think too hard, and stop this side of the goal. All the resources of an indomitable will, square dealing, close application to business, long hours, expenses cut to the minimum, careful, patient, laying of a foundation from the age of sixty-six to seventy-one, (Mr. Hirst is now seventy-six years old) a steady uphill pull–and then success. And then the old man stopped, as if there were really no more to tell. " Oh! but, Mr. Hirst," I cried, springing up, "go on, I want to hear the rest. How about the next five years ? How about your refusal to sell to the Prince of Wales on Sunday?" "Oh," he said, "you've heard that story about the Prince of Wales? Well', yes" he said, "that's true. I didn't sell the Prince of Wales anything, but I sold that week to a number of the officers of his staff; in fact, that was the most profitable week I had had in Rangoon up to that date. And things have seemed to come my way ever since that week. "The story, somehow, travelled back to England," he continued. "Two years later the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Princess Patricia came to Rangoon. I was in bed, ailing–not feeling quite fit–at the time of their visit. The Duke sent me a note saying that they would like to call upon me. I got into a dressing gown to receive them. When they came, the Duchess apologized and said, 'It is really too bad to intrude upon you when you are ill, Mr. Hirst,' but the Duke said, 'I didn't want to leave Rangoon without seeing, and shaking hands, with the man who wouldn't open his store on Sunday even to do business with my brother, the King of England.' "The best carvers in the country work for me. I've placed Burmese works of art pretty well over the world in the past five years. The representative of a King in Europe, some time ago, was buying some pieces from me for his King. He asked me if I thought a certain screen I had 'was good enough for his King's palace?' I told him I sold one like it for my King's palace, and if it was good enough for my King it was good enough for his." Mr. Hirst, I said, I want your photograph.




"Why, Mr. Allen," he said, "do you know, I haven't got a picture of myself? You'd be welcome to it if I had. I live alone, I'm quite alone in the world. I've never wanted a picture of myself, and for twenty years there has been no one to want a picture of me. I was married at twenty-four, and lost my wife two years later. She left me with an infant daughter, who lived with me until her death at thirty years of age. I didn't marry again, for two reasons. I never saw anyone whom I thought could fill my wife's place, and I shrank from giving my little girl a step-mother. I've often thought that, perhaps, that was not the wisest thing. If I had married again, while my little girl was still too young to know the difference, it might have been better for the child, and I might have had a son to take this business when I am gone. But our life was very happy, while my daughter was spared to me." 'Twas the only note of sadness in his story. A happier, jollier, better informed, more wholesome man, one would not ask to meet, than J. Whitfield Hirst, English gentleman, doing business in his King's colony of Burmah–a most loyal subject to his King I honestly believe if the Devil came at us with that proposition, we'd send him back home with a flea in his ear. I went to my hotel for my camera, and Mr. Hirst went to his store. I have some kodak pictures of Mr. Hirst, and a group of his ivory carvers, working on elephants' tusks.




Can you get it thoroughly into your noddles, children, what that message to the heir to the throne of England meant to Mr. Hirst ? Do you know how dear success in business is, to men who are fighting for it ? Can you picture the situation in Rangoon, a British city of nearly 300,000? The heir to England's throne expected! Everyone on the qui vive, especially the merchants. A few might hope for a royal visit; and once it was made, that shop was stamped with royal favor. This means much to a London merchant; but vastly more in far off Rangoon, would a visit, and the patronage, of the Royal Prince mean to the merchant fortunate enough to capture it. A man no longer young–seventy-one years old–an old man, putting up his last fight for business success. He has fought, and won, and lost, and for fifteen years in a new and distant land he has fought to win it back. The stress of battle is still with him. Oh! if now the Prince would but put the stamp of royal approval on his shop! And then the message comes to the brave old man:–" His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, will call at your store to purchase goods at a certain hour tomorrow." But "tomorrow " is Sunday, and Mr. Hirst can't sell goods on Sunday without violating his conscience. So this message goes back, " My compliments to the Prince of Wales, but tell him I would not sell goods to the King of England on Sunday!" Somehow or other, it strikes me, there's the making of a mighty good story in the bare facts recited above. But I've got to make a drive for Calcutta tomorrow, and Mr. Hirst is going up country to look at a lot of elephants' tusks he has got wind of.

Source: It Tickled Him Around the World - George Hoyt Allen - 1910

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[Barton]

MITSUKOSHI

MITSUKOSHI

1-4-1 Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chūō, Tokyo

The business was founded in 1673, and opened its first store ten years later, in 1683. It is now an international company with stores around the world.


Mitsukoshi Gofukuten - Toyko - 1908

The mark of the Mitsukoshi department store:

纯银 = Pure Silver - 三越 = Mitsukoshi



Mitsukoshi - Toyko - 1919



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[dognose]

F. GRÄHLERT & Co.

Fuang Nakon Road, Bangkok



F. Graehlert & Co. - Bangkok - 1904




F. Grählert & Co. - Bangkok - 1909

Mr. F. Grahlert came to Bangkok some eighteen years ago as jeweller to his Majesty the King. A few years later he started business on his own account, his shop, which is in close proximity to the royal palaces, being the first of its kind opened in the city. He still enjoys the patronage of his Majesty the King; for the firm are jewellers to the Court by special appointment, and are constantly being entrusted with the execution of importantant commissions by their Majesties the King and Queen of Siam and his Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The company employ upwards of fifty native craftsmen, who are highly skilled in the art of fashioning gold and silver into articles of most artistic and delicate design, and their work is very justly and naturally is held in the highest favour. The firm's premises would well repay an inspection; their stock is a large and varied one, and is effectively and tastefully displayed. Whether the articles are of Oriental or European design, their quality can be guaranteed.

Source: Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam - Arnold Wright - 1908

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[dognose]

HOPE BROS, and Co., Ltd.,

47-48, Nanking Road, Shanghai.



Hope Brothers & Co.Ltd. - Shanghai - 1909


The metropolitan aspect of some of the shops in Shanghai is a subject of no small surprise to the visitor and a matter of congratulation to the residents. One of the most noteworthy establishments is the large and handsome one in which Messrs. Hope Brothers and Co., Ltd., transact all the operations incidental to the watchmaking and jewellery trade. The many beautiful and precious articles which are artistically and effectively displayed in its extensive windows (extending about 150 feet) are a never failing source of interest to passers-by, and, doubtless, a source of envy to firms with more restricted facilities and less attractive goods.

But while the external appearance of the premises is so pleasing, that of the interior is still better calculated to impress the visitor. Here are to be found innumerable specimens of high art in gold, silver, and precious stones, in bronze, marble, crystal, and in all the most valuable materials. During our inspection we noticed in one of the many showcases a string of 200 pearls marked at 94,000 dollars! As a matter of fact, the firm's stock of pearls is reckoned the finest in the Orient. Their display of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, jade, and other stones is also remarkable, and they illustrate chaste and novel designs in the manufacture of jewellery. Watches and clocks are shown in a variety that should satisfy the most fastidious or extensive demands, and should be viewed by all desirous of obtaining something out of the common–a time-keeper that will not only faithfully record the passing minutes and hours, but will combine those novel and ornamental features which the leading manufacturers are ever striving to enhance in their best productions.

The firm's display of bronzes with electric lights is uncommon, and those whose requirements tend in that direction will find, in the event of their visiting the establishment, a difficulty in resisting the many beautiful examples of art and utility which it contains.

Musical boxes, gramophones, optical instruments, and fancy goods add also to the interest and attraction of the stock.

The business has been established since 1905, and the able manner in which it is conducted could not be improved.

Source: Seaports of the Far East, Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial facts, Figures,& Resources - A. Macmillan - 1907

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[dognose]

NAKAMURA

13, Owaricho. Nichome. and The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo



Nakamura - Toyko - 1894



Nakamura - Toyko - 1895

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[dognose]

TOKO V/D POL

Soerabaia, Java



Toko V/D Pol - Soerabaia - 1937

Very likely a retailer only, but worth recording in case they marked the silverware that they sold.

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[dognose]

WATSON & SON

59, Phayre Street, Rangoon



Watson & Son - Rangoon - 1922




Established in 1888. The business of Frank Ernest Watson and William Charles Penn. They went out of business during the Japanese occupation (1942—45).

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[dognose]

SOUTH KOREAN GOLD MARKING

Three marks that may appear on modern South Korean made gold objects:




The above is the mark of the Korea Jewellers' Association. The association was established in 1966 and marking of manufacturing members products started at the same time, but the scheme was unsuccessful and fell by the wayside at an unknown date and the activities of the association suspended. However, the Korea Jewellers' Association was resurrected in 1987 in readiness for the 1988 Olympics that were held at Seoul, and marking reintroduced.

Around the same time, 1987, two other organisations were formed:

The Korea Jewelery Manufacturers' Association, who marked their member's products with the below symbol:




and The Precious Metal & Gem Trade Laboratory, who marked products with the below symbol:




All three organisations and markings appear to be unofficial, but are apparently subject to government inspection. Three gold standards are recognised, 24, 18, and 14 carats.

The above information that I have gleaned, could use confirmation/additions/corrections, and of course, actual examples.

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[dognose]

H. SENA

Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

Established in 1919 by Henry Senanayake, popularly known as Henry Sena, who had emigrated to Bangkok from Sri Lanka. He opened the first two Singapore jewellery shops on Oriental Avenue and within the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel under the name H. Sena Jewellery.

On a stopover at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore during the 1930s on his way to Europe, Henry saw the potential for establishing a new store at the hotel’s exclusive shopping arcade. The hotel management agreed, and he asked his brothers to run the business while he remained in Bangkok — starting the company’s family-run tradition that continues to this day. He also opened two stores in Malaysia which were owned and run by Sena family members.

Henry Sena retired in 1962, and the business was continued by his youngest son, Dharma Sena. Dharma managed the H. Sena flagship store until 2011, before passing it on to the third generation of the Sena family.

Examples of the work and marks of H. Sena:











The business continues today.



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[dognose]

CK

Canton










The as yet unidentified silversmith 'CK' was known to have been working in Canton during the period c.1840-c.1865. The marks on his wares are the only known examples of Irish pseudo marks to be used on Chinese Export Silver.

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