Candlesticks

This pair of candlesticks would have likely stood upon an altar table in the 1883 Howell Rd temple in Tingha.

LOCATION

Wing Hing Long Museum, Tingha.

Each of this pair of candlesticks would have been held mounted upright in a pair of pewter candlestick holders, which would have stood upon an altar table in a temple. A 1901 photo of the interior of the 1883 Howell Rd temple in Tingha, shown below, depicts a pair of candlesticks displayed like this on the altar. This even maybe the same candlesticks in the photograph that are now preserved at Wing Hing Long Museum.

TEXT ON CANDLESTICKS

The inscriptions run from right to left in the traditional fashion, according to which text flows downwards in vertical columns that progress from right to left, or seemingly leftwards when those columns are only one-character deep, as is the case here. Texts 1 and 2, and texts 3 and 4, would have been intended to be read in combination, hence the transcriptions and translations provided above. Chinese grammar favouring the provision of context before detail, the date, which constitutes text 1, is the first part of the donation inscription; likewise, the location of the “Ming Cheung” shop, which constitutes text 3, is the first part of the manufacturer’s inscription.

Donation and date

Text 1 followed by Text 2

光緒癸未陳觀植送

Gifted by Chen Quin Jack, in Xviii of the Kuang Hsü Era.

According to the sexagenary dating system, Xviii of the Kuang Hsu Era corresponds to the period on the Gregorian calendar that began on the 8^th of February 1883 and ended on the 27^th of January 1884.

The donor of these resplendent gilt carved altar-table candlesticks, Chen Quin Jack, is credited with the construction of Tingha’s 1883 Howell Road temple. The inscription provides a date on the Chinese calendar that largely corresponds to 1883. It seems highly likely, therefore, that these candlesticks come from Tingha’s 1883 Howell Road temple.

Manufacturer

Text 3 followed by Text 4

省城會仙明昌店造

Made by the Ming Cheung shop of Wui Sin [Street] in the Provincial Capital [Canton].

This is the same manufacturer whose name is on the set of Processional Placards.

NOTES

How the texts connect: The inscriptions run from right to left in the traditional fashion, according to which text flows downwards in vertical columns that progress from right to left, or seemingly leftwards when those columns are only one-character deep, as is the case here. Texts 1 and 2, and texts 3 and 4, would have been intended to be read in combination, hence the transcriptions and translations provided above. Chinese grammar favouring the provision of context before detail, the date, which constitutes text 1, is the first part of the donation inscription; likewise, the location of the “Ming Cheung” shop, which constitutes text 3, is the first part of the manufacturer’s inscription.

“The Provincial Capital”: The expression 省城 “the Provincial Capital” would refer in this context to the city of Canton (now also known as Guangzhou).

“Wui Sin”: 會仙 “Wui Sin” would be a reference to 會仙街 “Wui Sin Street” (Pinyin: Huìxiān), which was a street that ran along the southern side of the wall that demarcated the quarter of Canton known historically as the New City: specifically the section of wall between the 五仙門 Genii Gate and the 靖海門 River Gate. See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/KERR_%281880%29_pg41_MAP_OF_CANTON.jpg With the destruction of Canton’s city walls in the early republican period, it seems that in 1920 this street was absorbed into a newly created 一得路 Yīdé Road, which survives to this day. The translator is aware of other firms that produced items for temples that were located on this street.

“Ming Cheung”: The Chinese in North America Research Committee (CINARC) website credits the firm of 明昌 “Ming Cheung”—which it refers to by means of the Mandarin romanisation “Ming Chang”—with the manufacture of an altar-table façade at the Ng Shing Gung Temple, San Jose, California: see https://www.cinarc.org/Shrines.html This artefact is said to be dated 1889.

Chen Quin Jack: For further information about Chen Quin Jack, see such resources as H. Brown’s Tin at Tingha and K. Brown’s Potstickers and Panning. Incidentally, K. Brown’s statement that “he had strong ties to the Chinese Masons” is corroborated by a list of Tingha Yee Hing Society donors from 1916, in which he is named: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226552190

This is a continually evolving website, and more information about this object will be published as further research is conducted.