Page 507 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

LOCK [aka LOCK HING]
33 Queen’s Road, Hong Kong; Canton & Shanghai
circa 1870-1940

The “LOCK” silver mark has been somewhat of an enigma for many years and has been subject to a number of
conjectures.

The “LOCK” and “A.LOCK” marks
did not belong to a silversmith, per
se; it was a mark used on silver by a
high end retailer by the name of
LOCK HING which described itself
as a “Chinese Ware Store”.

Lock Hing was a similar type of
operation to CUTSHING and WANG
HING & Co; all were purveyors of
silver items, carved ivory, jade, silk
and lacquerware. Lock Hing was in
the same vicinity on Queen’s Road,
Hong Kong as the Wang Hing store.

The eminent London antique store
owner the late John Sparks claimed
that Lock Hing also had premises in
Shanghai and Canton, but no
documentary evidence has yet been
discovered to quantify his claim. It
appears he may have based this
theory on the fact that he had found
items similar to the standing cup
[left] and the following figural
tankard that he believed was in the
style of “Lock”. Since there is
nothing particularly unique about the
decorative treatment of those two
pieces, perhaps the Canton and
Shanghai stores were wishful
thinking.

Research is continuing to verify
evidence of the John Sparks’ theory.