Page 596 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

PRITCHARD & Co
Beach Street, Georgetown, Penang; also at Ipoh, Perak State, Malaysia
circa 1885-1920

Pritchard & Co was a British-owned department store in Georgetown, Penang [see image below - Pritchard’s
Godown decorated for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee].

At the turn of the 19th century, the northern section of Beach Street and the adjacent Bishop Street were the
‘high street’ where the ‘modern’ European emporia and stores selling imported merchandise were situated.
Among the early foreign companies that located their offices on Beach Street were the Netherlands Trading
Society, the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank, Boustead & Co., Guthne & Co.,
Caldbeck & Macgregor, Behn Meyer, Sandilands & Buttery, G.H. Slot and the department stores of Pritchard &
Co., Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Goldenberg & Zeitlin and others.

What might seem today to be somewhat of a tiny colonial backwater store actually offered some highly
exclusive merchandise. Silver was part of that offering and although it has to be said it certainly has the style of
Chinese Export Silver from the end of the 19th century, there is no evidence of silver items that have been