Page 648 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

SINCERE & Co. [aka: Xian Shi]
Nanking Road, ShangHai
172, Queen’s Road & Des Voeux Road, Hong Kong
also in Nanjing & Peking
circa 1880-1940+

Sincere & Co also used a maker’s mark on its silver items [left] using the name
Xian Shi in Chinese characters only. The name of Sincere & Co. in Chinese is
‘Xianshi Gonsi’.

There was also a mark in English and Chinese characters that used the name
Xian Shi [left]

Another version of the Sincere mark carries the intials “SC” and the Chinese
chopmark for Xian Shi [right]

Yet another Sincere silver mark was the use of the single initial “S”

Sincere & Co was, with its competitor counterpart Wing On, the largest department store in Hong Kong and
Shanghai. Founded in 1900 by Ma Ying Piu, it exists to this day and is still controlled by the Ma family. The
original Shanghai store was modelled on the David Jones store in Sydney, where Ma Piu grew up.

Sincere, like Wing On, maintained its own silver workshops as well as commissioning from other makers under
its own mark. Sincere & Co was the only Chinese retailer to have a presence in New York at 16-18 East 30th
Street. Its logo today still carries the Xian Shi name and trademark.

It was Sincere that served as the guinea pig and it was Wing On that was to watch and take note of the problems
and mistakes that Ma Ying Piu was to make in those early years. Sincere created its own trademark based on its