Page 405 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

P. KIERULFF & COMPANY & H. KIERULFF & COMPANY
31 Victoria Road, Tientsin & Legation Street, Legation Quarter, Peking
1874 - circa 1920

Kierulff acted as a compradore/general store to
foreign residents and travellers, claiming they could
supply virtually anything. At their Peking premises,
they also ran a hotel.

There were only two foreign-owned general stores in
Peking at this time and only one hotel. The other
store was the French-owned Taillieu; Kierulff’s was
the first to open.

Kierulff specialised in enamel work and claimed to
have a large range of Chinese Export Silver. While
none of this appears to have ever carried a specific
Kierulff mark, there were certainly Chinese-made
clocks and automatons that did carry the Kierulff
mark,with the mechanisms coming from Paris.

The store was well patronised by travellers but most importantly the
Chinese wealthy Manchu families. the Imperial Court itself including
Manchu princes of the Imperial family, their concubines and eunuchs
and Mongolian princes came to regularly buy “exotic” goods. It is
highly likely that some of the Chinese Export Silver, particularly from
Peking makers, that made it to the West originated here, given its
proximity to all foreign legations in Peking at the time. There is
numerous archived documentation of two-way trade involving Kierulff
and Jardine Matheson.

Peter A Kierulff was a Danish merchant who opened the Peking store in
1874. He was one of the few non-diplomatic foreigners to be allowed
residency in the city. In 1893 he sold the business to a German, J.
Kruger.

The former 3 acre Foreign Legation compound is now known as the Dong Cheng district