“A Goldsmith’s Shop,” c. 1896 – 1906. Photograph by Arnold Genthe (from the collection of the Library of Congress). Historian Jack Tchen identified this photograph of the founder of the Tin Fook Jewelry Store (天福首飾; canto: “tin1 fuk1 sau2 sik1”) at 727 Jackson Street, owned by The Chew family.
A Goldsmith for All Seasons
Among the images captured by photographer Arnold Genthe, known of pre-1906 San Francisco Chinatown, was a goldsmith's shop in Chinatown. In his 1984 book, Genth's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown, historian John Kuo Wei ("Jack") Tchen wrote about Genthe's photograph of "A Goldsmith's Shop" as follows:
“Seen in this rare indoor shot are the typical carved and gilded sign, the intricate gilded carving of symbolic animals framing the counter, and the teakwood furniture imported from Vietnam. Mr. Chew, a a San Yi [三邑; canto: “Saam1 Yap1”] gold miner, opened Tin Fook as a cooperative store serving Chinese miners. At the time the store was located on the waterfront, off Kearney[sic] Street between Washington and Clay. Chinese miners would regularly deposit their gold in his safe at no interest. (General provision stores also commonly served in this manner as banks.) When they accumulated enough gold or wanted to return to China, these miners would have Mr. Chew make various gold objects to sneak past the customs officials. He frequently made gold belts and gold chains which could be sewn into the seams of clothing. It is said that once he made a solid gold frying pan which was blackened with soot to make it look authentic. Tin Fook reportedly had a sterling reputation among Chinatown residents.”
Forty years ago, Tchen (for whom access to old Chinatown’s business directories was more difficult prior to the deployment of the Internet), erroneously located the Tin Fook jewelry store (天福首飾; canto: “tin1 fuk1 sau2 sik1”) at 727 Jackson Street, its post-1906 address. The old Chinese Exchange directories show Tin Fook operated before the earthquake and fire of 1906 at 711-1/2 Jackson with an old phone listing as “China 526” from 1903 to 1905. Somewhat mysteriously, the jeweler appears nowhere in the Chinese business listings prior to the phone directories.
Genthe's "A Goldsmith's Shop" shares a Chew family connection with another of his striking photographs, “The Wild Cat (for the Highbinder’s feast of the uncooked meat).”
“The Wild Cat (for the Highbinder’s feast of the uncooked meat),” c. 1902 - 1906. Photograph by Arnold Genthe (from the collection of the Library of Congress). A sidewalk vendor arranges his wild game products, including a wildcat carcass. One of the men in the background is an itinerant fortune teller.
Although Genthe apparently did not identify the individual dressing the wild cat carcass, Tchen speculated that it may have been “Wing Chew, the son of the original owner of the Tin Fook jewelry store, [who] used to disappear into the mountains for a few days and bag a wildcat for sale in Chinatown…. ”
As Tchen alludes, Tin Fook’s founder, being an immigrant from the Sam Yap (三邑) region of Guangdong province would have been significant in shaping both his business and social standing in pre-1906 Chinatown. The districts of Nanhai, Panyu, and Shunde comprise the Sam Yap linguistic and cultural area of the province. It was one of the primary sources of the earliest Chinese migration to California, particularly among Cantonese-speaking merchants and artisans (and before the larger influx of laborers from the Toisanese-speaking counties). Immigrants from the Sam Yap area were well-represented among skilled tradesmen, including goldsmiths and jewelers, as well as merchants who formed the economic backbone of Chinatown.
The founding Chew's origins likely influenced his access to trade networks, labor, and capital, as many business dealings in Chinatown were structured around kinship ties, village associations (huiguan 會館), and district-based fraternal organizations. If he belonged to the influential Sam Yap merchant association, he would have benefited from mutual support, credit access, and community protection in an era of racial exclusion. Additionally, the Sam Yap people had a long tradition of craftsmanship and commerce, which may have helped him establish himself as a jeweler with expertise valued both within and beyond the Chinese community.
Furthermore, as a Chinese immigrant in an era of strict anti-Chinese laws, including the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), his status as a merchant (rather than a laborer) would have been crucial. Merchants were among the few Chinese immigrants exempt from exclusion laws and could sometimes travel between the U.S. and China, maintain business ties abroad, and even sponsor family members. His success in operating Tin Fook jewelry shop suggests he navigated these constraints skillfully, leveraging his regional background, professional expertise, and community networks to thrive in a difficult legal and economic landscape.
The Tin Fook enterprise, with other goldsmiths and jewelers, played a useful role in the Chinatown economy, especially in an era when Chinese residents were largely excluded from traditional banking institutions due to discriminatory laws and policies. The shops functioned not only as purveyors of jewelry but also as informal financial institutions, where individuals could safely store wealth, secure loans, and conduct financial transactions within the community. Gold, in particular, was often preferred over paper currency as a means of preserving and transferring wealth back to China during the 19th century.
Today, Chinese jewelry stores continue to uphold cultural traditions, crafting pieces that hold traditional symbolic meaning and as heirlooms that tie 21st century descendants to pioneer Chinese American ancestors.