Our Story
For four generations, Yuk Shing Hin & Co. has been one of Hong Kong’s most unique and celebrated antique dealers, specializing in the trade of rare Chinese ceramics and other antiquities of Imperial China to a domestic and international clientele. Founded by Mr. Fong Peixin in Fuzhou in 1911 during the final year of the Qing Dynasty, the initial success of the company as one of mainland China’s earliest international antique dealers allowed for Mr. Fong to open a branch in the cosmopolitan and luxurious French Concession in Shanghai between 1931 and 1933.
China’s changing landscape during this period necessitated Mr. Fong to move his business to Hong Kong in 1934 where it remains today, where he operated from in a small shop on Upper Lascar row (Moro Street) until 1975. It was during the early- mid 1970s that Yuk Shing Hin & Co. truly began to earn its reputation as a reputable destination for wealthy clientele interested in starting or growing their collections of Chinese antiquities, in part through the charisma and alesmanship of second generation owner Mr. “John K. Fong” (Fong Jianzhong). Serving exclusively overseas dealers in Denmark, Sweden, France, Holland, Switzerland, (West) Germany, and the United States, Yuk Shing Hin & Co.’s clientele included Tiger Balm inventor Hu Wenhu (Aw Boon-Haw), Christian Dior, film producer Harry Lee Danzinger, France Chasman, Mr. and Mrs. John Littleton Glover, with whom he kept a continuous correspondence, and King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden.
Our Story
This period featured Yuk Shing Hin & Co. and “John K. Fong” headlining numerous newspapers articles on the antiquities trade. These included an article from Sweden where his authentication of a Qing Dynasty vase was celebrated by its authors, but also his record-breaking purchase of a Tang Dynasty tomb figurine of a horse in sancai from Christies in June 1973 for HK $612,000; which paling in comparison with auctions set in the past two decades, a price of this magnitude was unheard of for such an artifact at the time. Noting in The Hong Kong Star that he visited China four times per year while spending close to HK $6 million each visit, photos from this period show his shop crammed with hardstone carvings, works of bronze including an Eastern Zhou (771-265 CE) bronze vase worth HK $270,000, lacquered wooden cabinets and screens, silk paintings, and numerous porcelain jars, vases, bowls, and plates from the Ming (1368-1644 CE) and Qing (1644-1911 CE) Dynasties.
After briefly moving to the Mira Hotel on the edge of Kowloon in 1975, Yuk Shing Hin & Co. settled in its current locaton on Boller Lane in 1983 under third eneration owner Mr. Fong King Shek. From 2022 onward, fourth-generation antique dealer and current owner Mr. Zhuang Mingwei has ensured Yuk Shing Hin & Co. has remained competitive in the Chinese porcelain business. The featured collection in this catalogue signifies the continuous focus of Yuk Shing Hin & Co. on the procurement and sale of rare and historically significant porcelains from the Song to Qing Dynasties and illustrates the brand’s multi-generational ommitment to luxury and tradition.
Author
A. Harris, PhD, Archaeologist / Art Historian
