Page 491 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

The watch was made for Levy Hermanos in Hong
Kong by Maurice Diisheim who also made many of
the movements for Ullmann & Company. The
Ullmann family and the Levy family knew each
other, the Levys originally coming from Alsace.

While the Manila store grew from strength to
strength, the Levy brothers expanded quickly from
Hong Kong into China by putting other family
members in charge; Armand Levy managed the
Hong Kong store, and various cousins managed
mainland China stores in Tientsin, Shanghai and
Port Arthur. Singapore [right] opened in 1904
managed by cousins F. Dreyfus and B. Engelke.

In 1904, two of the Levy family settled in Tientsin
where a small community of Russian Jews had
already settled and prospered. By 1917, some 600
Jewish families had settled there having fled the
Russian revolution via Manchuria.

In 1920 the community, with the help of the Levy’s and
other prosperous families, built a synagogue [below] in
Tientsin and a Jewish school; the synagogue exists
today and is still in use.
The Levy “empire” began with their headquarters in
Paris at Rue l’Echiquier which opened in 1874.
New York opened in 1910 at 10 Gold Street in Lower
Manhattan, while other stores opened in Harban and
Bombay.

In 1920, Levy Brothers Hong Kong was sold to Sennet
Freres where Albert Weill, a cousin of the Levy’s,
remained as manager. Albert and his brother were both
master watchmakers.

Similar to Ullmann & Co, Levy Brothers had a managing
interest in what appeared to be incongruous
businesses; an automotive business as well as a
cinematograph company.

However, unlike Ullmann & Co, Levy Hermanos had a focus on selling silver in their stores in Hong Kong and in
China proper. It seems as if the Levy’s did not always make the silver items in Hong Kong or China, but it could
well be that they were using Chinese silversmiths working in Manila.
The following tea and coffee set and tray are of extremely high quality and the style, although Art Deco
influenced, is almost certainly not something that came out of Hong Kong or China - but they do carry a Levy
silver mark and the set has a known provenance of being originally bought at Levy Brothers in Tientsin.