Chinese Export Silver & Far East Trade Information

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An image of the principal Chinese business street in Manila, Philippines. An, as yet, unidentified jeweller's shop can be seen on the far right of the photograph:



This image is from 1921.

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JAPANESE WHITE METAL

'The Metal Industry' recently made an analysis of a Japanese white metal tray and the result was as follows:

Lead, 96.6 per cent.
Antimony, 3.4 per cent.
Copper, slight trace.
Tin, slight trace.

The tray was scarcely one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, but the design was brought in sharp relief and plated with gold and silver. We are informed by a Japanese metallurgist that such trays are usually cast in Japan in paper molds, the low melting temperature of the alloy permitting a casting to be made in a mold of this material.

Source: The Metal Industry - January 1905

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YE CHENG Co.

Tientsin

An example of the work and mark of the Ye Cheng Co.:



The firm are thought to be in existence around the 1900 to 1930 period.

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JUNG FENG CHENG

Tientsin


The cash shops and banks in Tientsin City on Saturday were engaged throughout the whole night in cashing their own and each others' bills. The run was due to the failure of the Jung Feng Cheng silversmith's and cash shop, which refused payment of a bill of TIP, 40,000 coming from Peking. Both its proprietor and manager have fled.

The banks of Jeh Hsing Mao, Jui Hsing Tai and Jui Cheng Tai were involved, and being unable to obtain support were obliged to close their doors. The three establishments belong to one proprietor, one Lio, a member of one of the richest families in Tientsin. His house is now guarded by police as a precaution against an attack by ruined creditors or the sympathetic mob. A general store belonging to the same proprietor was wrecked.

Fearing that other cash-shops and banks may be involved in the same way the Tientsin prefect and the Magistrate issued a notice on Sunday ordering them not to cash each other's bills for five days. It is stated that 10 days were given to the three closed banks to settle their affairs.

Source: The Celestial Empire - 8th April 1905

The print quality of the newspaper that the above was taken from is very poor, however the name of the silversmith appears to be correct.

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A visit to the principal shops in Honcho-dori, the shops chiefly frequented by foreign residents of Yokohama and by travellers landing here, shows that a trade of some magnitude has gradually sprung up in silver articles, such as spoons, dishes, bowls, vases, menu-stands, boxes and so forth. That there was room for large enterprise in this field is a fact often pointed out in these columns in past years, and we are not at all surprised to observe that our forecast has been verified. There was a time when, in spite of the evidence of extraordinary glyptic skill furnished by the sword ornaments which so many foreigners collected, no one appeared to think of getting silver utensils made in Japan, and when a race-cup or a presentation piece was required, recourse was had to China or India, where the silver-smiths' work never could bear comparison with that of the Japanese. Such a mistake is no longer perpetrated. But if there is cause for congratulation is one sense, there is reason for much regret in another. It has fared with the work of the Japanese silver-smith precisely as it has fared with the work of the Japanese art-artizan in every branch; vitiation has been the result of his attempt to cater to foreign taste. Among the hundreds of silver articles displayed in the shops of Yokohama to tempt European or American buyers, we have not been able to find one that reaches the standard of even second-rate skill. All are of the same kind –profusely decorated with designs in high relief, which, when not obtained by the simple process of casting, are chiselled so rudely as to be without the smallest claim to technical excellence. There has always been a broad distinction between the Japanese point of view and the foreign with regard to glyptic work. The Japanese clearly distinguishes the pictorial aspect from the technical. As a matter of fact, the greatest Japanese chisellers of metal in all eras were not designers. They obtained decorative subjects either direct from contemporary artists, or from the numerous grammars of design which the artizan class possessed. Thus no credit belonged to them with regard to the design itself, unless it was the credit of making a tasteful selection. Their credit began and ended with the technical execution, and it is to the quality of the chiselling that the Japanese connoisseur looks, whereas the foreigner thinks primarily of the picture and the decorative effect. Of course, there are some practical considerations in favour of the latter canon, but its pernicious potentialities are very visible in the work of which we are now speaking. None of it, absolutely none, displays any of the qualities of vigour, grace, delicacy and naturalistic fidelity that distinguish the metal artist of Japan as he is known among his own people. The whole aim of the Yokohama silver-smith seems to have been to produce what might be called a “handsome" object at small cost. He apparently knew that he was working for customers who would not recognise, or pay any attention to, skill in sculpture, and that if he showed them a really fine specimen at a correspondingly high figure, they would merely call him exorbitant and go next door, where an equally showy object could be had twenty or thirty per cent. cheaper. There is no other way of accounting for the absolutely uniform inferiority of all the specimens in all the shops. They have been forced down to a low technical level by the pressure of competition among sellers, and by a lamentable want of discrimination among buyers. Trade is trade, and if a demand exists for these rude articles, we do not say that it should not be satisfied. But the trouble is that the reputation of the Japanese sculptor of metals suffers, Such work does not invest him with any title to claim special superiority, or to become, as we believe he might become, the world's recognised craftsman in many branches of metal sculpture. Our readers, if they pause to reflect, will probably say that, after all, the fault is with the foreigner, and that since he is content with inferior work, the Japanese can not reasonably be expected to offer him anything else. We do not altogether deny it. What we urge, however, is that the Japanese might profitably make some effort to educate European and American customers to a higher standard. They might have sufficient enterprise to keep in stock a few really choice specimens, so that a foreigner unacquainted with the kinzokushi's real capacities, would have an opportunity of learning something about them by the aid of object-lessons. At present he has no such opportunity. The impression he must inevitably carry away from a visit to the Honcho-dori shops is that Japan's metal workers are very mediocre artizans, not standing much higher than the artizans of India or China. It is an unhappy state of affairs; a repetition, as we have said, of the familiar experience that the foreign market exercises a demoralizing effect upon Japanese art.

Source: The Japan Daily Mail - 29th December 1900

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NIKKAI TAMEYUKI

Kitanagasa-dori, 2 chome, Kobe


Awadzu Tsunekichi, thirty-five years of age, residing at No. 25, Shimoyamate-dori, 2 chome, Kobe, was arrested on Saturday, says the Kobe Herald, on a charge of having stolen three finger rings, one set with a diamond, and five other articles, valued at over yen 400, the property of M. G. Abily. The stolen articles were on a mantelpiece in the premises of the Messageries Maritimes Company at the time of the recent fire. It has been ascertained that Awadzu sold the diamond to Nikkai Tameyuki, a silversmith of Kitanagasa-dori, 2 chome, and that he disposed - of the other articles, after endeavouring to prevent their being identified, to various other persons, retaining only the ring from which the diamond had been removed, and a cross. The whole of the property has, however, been recovered and restored to M. Abily. The thief has been sent before the Public Procurator. The police are once more to be congratulated on a smart piece of work.

Source: The Japan Daily Mail - 9th March 1907

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WASSIAMULL ASSOMULL & Co.

Canton


Wassiamull Assomull & Co.of Canton were noted as exhibitors at the Universal Exposition at St. Louis in 1904.

Among the items that they displayed were silver tea sets, candlesticks, vases, cruets, punch-bowls, cups, plates, jewel-boxes, cigarette-cases, belts and ornaments. Gold and silver jewelry set with jadestones, bangles, necklaces, earrings, sleeve-links, watch-charms, bracelets, hair-pins, and charms.

The firm also had premises at 1-4, High Street, and 42, Arab Street, Singapore (Navalrai Choithram, partner & manager), and also at Bombay (Wadhoomall Reighumall). Watanmal Bulchand was also connected with the business.

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TAKSHANG

Canton


Takshang of Canton were noted as exhibitors at the Universal Exposition at St. Louis in 1904.

Among the items that they displayed were silver tea sets, trays, puff and jewel-boxes, cruets, cigarette-cases, belts, mugs, and ornaments.

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Yamatogumi

Yamatogumi was originally founded in 1910 by ITO Masajiro 伊藤政治郎　as the Ito Silverplate Factory 伊藤メッキ工場 and located in Mukojima, Sumida Ward, Tokyo. The factory moved to the Honjo area of Tokyo in the early 1920s, probably following the 1923 earthquake. Became Yamatogumi Factory 大和組工場 ‬ around this time, and later on, Yamatogumi Metalwares, Limited 合資会社大和組金属制作所. Had a business connection with Mitsukoshi Department Store before WWII. Production was effectively shut down, industry-wide, by the 1940 government order restricting metal products.

In 1949, Ito was one of the founding members of the Export Antimony Manufacturers’ Association (輸出アンチモニー工業共同組合). From this time, the company became known as Yamatogumi Corporation (株式会社ヤマトグミ).

Source: 輸出アンチモニー工業の歩み [History of the Export Antimony Industry] (1999)
Author: Export Antimony Industry Association Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.

David Ross

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YAMATOGUMI

Tokyo

Some examples of the marks of Yamatogumi (see above post):









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Tu Mao Xing (can also be transliterated Tu Mao Hsing), active in Jiujang Province ca 1880 to 1930. Known mark uses only Chinese characters and no alphabet: a narrow banner with Jiujang written horizontally at the head and Tu Mao Xing written vertically beneath.



David Ross

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PS - Unknown











The only possibility that I have come up with so far is that this may be an unrecorded mark of Poh Sing, aka Po Hsing, also known as the Pau Kuang Company of Shanghai (based on nothing more than it is the only 'PS' that I could find!).

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PRITCHARD & Co.

15, Beach Road, Georgetown, Penang, and Ipoh



Pritchard & Co. - Penang - 1906


Pritchard & Co. - Penang - 1907


Pritchard & Co. were a department store that were noted as marking their silverware.

Marks noted: 'PRITCHARD & Co. - PENANG - STERLING'

The firm were thought to have been in business from c.1885 until c.1920.


The employees at Pritchard & Co. in 1907 were noted as:

G. H. Pritchard
G. H. Lees
E. Lees
H. T. Petts, (signs per pro.)
J. R. Beckett
J. W. Webb
W. Preedy
W. Gubbins
A. A. Holloway
B. Peters
H. E. Olive
T. Jeffries
D. O. Brown
W. Simpson
G. H. Coombs
Tan Ghim Chooi
Lye Poh Swee
Line Poh Son
H. H. Hoeden
A. N. Wemyss
G. de Ris
S. E. Matthieu
W. Mont Brun
C. Torris

Source: The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c: With which are Incorporated "The China Directory" and "The Hong Kong List for the Far East" - 1907

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EMIL ZOBEL

Beach Road, Georgetown, Penang, and Beach Street, Malacca

Noted as a Watchmaker and Jeweller at Beach Road, Penang in 1907.


This may be Carl Moritz Emil Zobel, of 4, Beach Road, Penang, Straits Settlements, who died in 1907.

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SIVA FRERES & Co.

14, Raffles Quay, Singapore and Antwerp


Noted as Wholesale Diamond Merchants and Commission Agents of 14, Raffles Quay, Singapore in 1907.

Marco Siva
Moise Siva (Antwerp)
J. Halleux
David Siva

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C. HARGERMARK

Amoy, China

C. Hargermark was recorded as a Watchmaker and a member of the British Horological Institute in 1865.

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THE BENTEN

12, Benten Dori, Yokohama


The Benten - Yokohama - 1918

Directory listing:


The Benten - Yokohama - 1918


The Benten - Yokohama - 1918

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ZENBEI KOBAYASHI

7-8, Torishio chio Nihonbashi Ku, Tokyo



Zenbei Kobayashi - Tokyo - 1904

Noted as an exhibitor at the World's fair, St. Louis, 1904.

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TSURUYA COMPANY

Izumimachi Itchome, Higashi-ku, Osaka



Tsuruya Company - Osaka - 1921

Manufacturers of 'Mikado' pearls.

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KATSUYOSHI SHOAMI

Tomikaji, Takeyamachi, Kyoto


Katsuyoshi Shoami's advertisement for the World's Fair - St. Louis - 1904:



Katsuyoshi Shoami - Kyoto - 1904

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