I don't know what I was expecting of the Royal Selangor factory, but it wasn't this:
I mean, for a brand that's supposed to be more than 100 years old, I'd expected something more rickety and erm... yellow? This factory was built some 40 years ago, and in 2004 they opened the visitor centre, which is the impressive structure you see above. And do you see the round cylindrical object, at the right side? (picture can be enlarged by clicking on it) It is actually a giant beer tankard, shown below.
This tankard is the world's largest pewter tankard, and got into the Guinness World Record in 1987. It's about 2 metres tall, weighs about 1.6tonnes and fills about 2,800 litres of beer. Reportedly that is 20 years' supply of beer for an Australian. Why the trivia chose to single out Aussies is anybody's guess.
You can bathe in it, make miniature giant tankard keychains out of it and sell each for RM60, or dunk your kids in it. I know! So useful right?
The Visitor Centre's really impressive. Someone obviously put a lot of planning into the layout, which takes you by some awesome antique exhibits and interactive displays, then to the factory (unfortunately it was closed on Sunday) and a close-up look at craftspeople demonstrating their work, and finally to the gift shop.
This is how the entrance looks like from within.
And this is the employee's handprint wall. Employees who have worked for more than five years, get their handprint on the wall, with their names engraved below. It's so cool! I mean, since that Royal Selangor was established in 1885, you've got your handprint along with history! It's meaningful, aesthetically pleasing and totally ingenious. I want to work with Royal Selangor!
I took a video of how they knocked uniform dents with a hammer onto a tankard, which makes the tankard look like the below picture in the end, but uploading takes ages and it doesn't take much imagination to imagine hammering.
I tried out the hammering, and I can tell you that it is much harder than it looks. For one, you need to make sure that your aim is precise and to the dot. Secondly, it is imperative that every single knock is of equal pressure, to make the size of the dents uniform. It really makes you appreciate the art. Here's a picture of me finding out that I have really crappy aim.
The tour then led us to the School of Hard Knocks, the reason that we came to Royal Selangor at the first place.
Basically you are given a sheet of pewter with "Royal Selangor Apprentice Pewtersmith" embellished on the bottom, then you hammer your name onto it. I botched mine horribly because of my shaky hands, but at least there's only one piece in the whole wide world. For better or for worse.
You then use the mallet (see my hand) and knock the sheet of pewter against the mold. The end product is a pewter bowl. And here I am, grinning like an idiot, knocking my bowl into shape. I had to put this in to give you an idea because I forgot to take a picture of the end product and I'm lazy to take a picture now. Maklumlah lying in bed propped up with pillows and blogging.
After some labour-intensive knocking, which is good therapy if you're furious ("Die! Die! Die!!!!"), you get to keep the bowl, the apron and a gleaming certificate that certifies that the bowl is handmade by you, all for RM50.Me and Achilles broke into a brawl when we finished because we couldn't decide whose bowl was nicer. (It was his, but I'm a sore loser.) Gosh the grin's stuck to my face!
After the School of Hard Knocks, we went back to the exhibits because the initial tour given was the short tour, as we had to hurry to meet the other two "apprentices" for the knocking session. With our end products snugly fit into the Royal Selangor box and paper bag, we proceeded for a leisurely tour, supposedly on our own till a guide pleasantly materialized out of thin air and gave us helpful explanations as we walked around.The staff in Royal Selangor are really nice and friendly, not to mention multi-lingual. The Indian guy who attended to us initially had to switch to another group later, because he spoke Japanese, and they were, well, Japanese. (They could have been Japanese-speaking Koreans but I prefer to keep life simple.)
And this is not your regular granddad. He is Yong Koon (formerly Yong Koon Seong but for unexplained reasons cut his name short), the founder of Selangor Pewter, back in 1885. He was originally from Shantou, China, but migrated to Malaya. In fact I was kind of surprised that Royal Selangor is a family business. With its regal name I expected it to be connected to the Sultan somehow, and I'd always assumed that it was a government-linked business.But no, I was wrong, it has been four generations now and Royal Selangor is still going strong. Here is a longer NST writeup on the history quoted by fellow blogger Sophie if you're interested. It's an interesting read involving a lucky melon pot and how "Royal" was bestowed upon Selangor Pewter's name. But, having pored over the family story (more on this later), I can add upon the part on the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, on how he used to shop for his pewter, and "invariably" knocked 30% off the price at the end, haha! So the Sultan does haggle, like a normal person! I feel much closer to royalty now.
And this was the first ever factory, back in the days when things were rickety and yellow. Scroll up and compare this to the enormous structure right now. Impressive.
And this was the quality seal on the products in the olden days before their branding became Selangor Pewter. It reads "Yu He Zu Xi", which means "Jade Peace Pure Tin".
So then we gamboled around the other exhibits, some which totally satisfy your inner child, like the Chamber of Chimes (jam session, anyone?) and the huge scale below which does not give you your weight, but is fun to clamber on anyway. I say weighing scales should totally be like this.
And there was the Hall of Finishes, a walkway of pewter-tiles-clad pillars. The tiles demonstrate different types of finishing that can be done on pewter, whether you knock it, pour it into a mold or scratch it viciously with your fingernails. By the way, pewter has a relatively low melting point, at 250 degrees Celsius. Any failed product and scrappings found around the factory is melted and recycled again.
Closer look of a pewter tile.
Here's the Hall of Frames, with about 200 photo frames of random shape and sizes.
Close up of a pewter ingot, which each weighs 45kg.
Money tree.
After going through all the exhibits (including a really cool dome-shaped interactive screen where Achilles and I waxed our knowledge over pewter trivia learnt from the tour), we finally ended up in the giftshop. Deciding to go high end, we went into the Comyns (subsidiary of Royal Selangor) giftshop, which sells silverware.We saw a candelabra which costs RM103,000, and a bowl which costs RM600,000.
We decided that we are still, deep in our hearts, pewter people.
Oh btw Comyns also sold some really cool pendants, rings and such made from fragments of china from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), and they are so. incredibly. awesome. The average price is about RM400-RM500 I think, which is miniscule compared to candelabras and whatnot. I am so gonna get one when my financial situation stabilizes in Singapore. I mean, you're owning a piece of history of at least 300 years ago. As Mastercard would say, that's priceless.
Then, while waiting for my parents to finish their walk in Setapak, Achilles and I flipped through The Royal Selangor Story, written by Chen May Yee, great granddaughter of Yong Koon. The book is filled with amusing anecdotes (like the Sultan haggling) and how the Yong family treated their workers like family, how a certain descendant (can't remember names) was flogged by his dad in the factory for sneaking out to play guli (marbles) instead of helping.
We also came to the conclusion that people started smiling in photographs circa the 1960s. Before that the proper etiquette was to grimace at the camera.
Only a family member would be able to write something as endearing and intimate as the Royal Selangor Story. I would have bought the book if it didn't cost a frigging RM95. Why is living so expensive??
All in all, I highly recommend the Royal Selangor tour and the School of Hard Knocks. The tour's free, the knocking's RM50 and optional. The exhibits are good, the tour is well-designed and amusing yet educational. You get a complimentary cold drink out of a quaint pewter mug, and appreciation of how the pewter ware in Royal Selangor are painstakingly crafted, like they were before, a century ago. And, if you're not butt poor like me, the pewter ware in the giftshop are of utmost quality, attested by the demand from all over the world (Royal Selangor is distributed over 20 countries) .
Official website is here, visitor centre website is here.
Wow. This post took me about three hours. Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures. (Three hours can! Show me some love lah) I should probably shower now.
