Page 702 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

TAI KUT [aka:TAIKUT; DA CHI; DA JI]
Canton
circa 1850-1900

The Tai Kut mark has caused confusion for over 60 years. The
name Tai Kut is often mistakenly applied to the silver marks of the
retail silversmith Tai Shan and Tai Hua.

The Tai Kut mark appears on its own as well as in conjunction
with the Wang Hing mark. This implies that Tai Kut was both a
manufacturing workshop and a retail silversmith

It is perhaps revealing that the Wang Hing/Tai Kut combined mark
[above] is actually created by a single punch, indicating this was
some form of working partnership and a regularly used one.

The circular box [right] is one that first
appeared in the Chait Collection catalogue by
Kernan in 1985. This particular box carries
the above mark and an additional engraved
mark :Special Order for Tiffany & Co. New
York”.

The appearance of this box has caused
confusion ever since inasmuch as it quickly
escalated into an assumption that Wang Hing
regularly supplied items for Tiffany. The fact
is it did not; this was upheld by an in depth
research project I carried out with Tiffany &
Co Archives in New York. No records exist in
the extensive Tiffany ledgers of Wang Hing
supplying any silver to Tiffany between
1850-1910. Why this box carries the
inscription it does is a mystery.

This particular format of the Wang Hing/Tai
Kut mark has often been attributed to being a
mark exclusively used for Wang Hing items
made for Tiffany & Co. This is obviously now
clear this is an entirely wrong assumption.

However, a significant number of Chinese silver items exist with the combined Wang Hing/Tai Kut mark as do
items with the singular TAIKUT Canton mark. My ongoing research has a particular focus on the TAIKUT/Wang
Hing partnership as well as the singular Tai Kut mark.