Page 328 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

HOUCHEONG [aka: HOU CHEONG; HOUCHONG; HC; HCG]!
New China Street, Canton!
circa 1820 - 1890!
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Houcheong was a retail silversmith and a quintessentially “Georgian” one at that. It was also [or still is] one of
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the most confusing in terms of silver marks.!
As one of the early Chinese retail silversmiths of the Chinese Export Silver period, it began life using the almost
ubiquitous “pseudo-hallmark” form of silver mark that many retail silversmiths in Canton adopted. Normally this
would be fairly straight forward, but the Houcheong mark wavered between using the initials “HCG” and “HC” in
those early marks. The use of the “HC” initials coincided at some point with another retail silversmith using the
same “HC” initials - Hung Chong of Shanghai, but thankfully Hung Chong never used the pseudo hallmark
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format and Houcheong’s use of “HC” was confined exclusively to the pseudo-hallmark format.!

The confusion is further exacerbated by another Canton retail silver,smith Hei Ch’eung Hing, using the initials
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“HCH”, which many collectors and even auction houses wrongly [but understandably] attribute to Houcheong.!
With that clarified, there is a further somewhat regrettable fact to impart - Houcheong silver is actually quite rare
to find, but every known example is of very high quality as was all the other early “Georgian” Canton silver from
other retailers and makers.!

Houcheong, like many of the early 19th century Canton silversmiths, had a focus on silver flatware. This King’s
pattern serving spoon is from a surviving set of six and is totally faithful to the standard King’s pattern design in
every way.!