LONDON – The Gerard Collection of Chinese export silver will be offered for sale at Chiswick Auctions on Wednesday, October 9. The 120-lot collection, inspired by the birthday gift of a tea caddy twenty years ago, represents a cross-section of the forms, patterns, retailers, and makers of silver in the late Qing and early Republic period.
Chinese silversmithing in the western manner has a long history. The distinctive ‘China Trade’-era wares began in the late 18th century as near copies of pieces made in London, but by the mid-19th century had developed to become a medium truly of its own. Most pieces combine typical European forms with Chinese decoration.
Chinese export silver has been widely collected since the late 20th century. However, the market has been fueled by a new buying audience from the Far East and by recent scholarship. It is only in recent decades that the markings on these pieces have been properly studied. Previously, the focus had been on the Arabic numerals, often 90 or 85, which allude to the purity of the silver and the prominent retailer’s marks in Latin characters. Large Canton, Shanghai, and Hong Kong distributors such as Wang Hing, a name that appears on numerous items made from circa 1860 to 1930, were once erroneously credited as manufacturers.
However, it is now understood that it is the artisan’s marks, stamped in Chinese characters, which denote the actual silversmithing workshop responsible for producing the piece. As scholars slowly but surely build up a picture of these workshops and their output, understanding these marks has become the focus of collecting of ‘China Trade’ silver.
There are many good examples in the Gerard collection that are cataloged according to recent research on the topic. A baluster-form ewer with the mark ‘WH’ for Wang Hing also carries the Chinese characters for Ye Bo. A prominent workshop in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) that appears to have almost exclusively supplied Wang Hing and the Shanghai retailer Luen Wo, it is noted for finely worked figural or scenic tableau. This ewer, estimated at £2,500-£3,500 ($3,300-$4,600), is chased and embossed to the body with storks fishing for eels, with the handle and finial modeled as a prunus branch.
A similar ewer by this workshop formed part of the influential exhibition Chinese Export Silver: The Chan Collection, shown at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore in 2005.
A Cantonese campana-form standing cup decorated with a figural battle scene (estimate £2,000-£3,000, or $2,600-$3,900) has the mark ‘Quan Ji’ (the workshop of Quan). Like many pieces of its type, it was used as a trophy by one of the many sporting clubs set up by British expats in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and has a presentation inscription reading ‘Moor 17 October 1886’.
A circa-1920 Republican-period bowl with cast and applied decoration of peacocks amid peonies and flowering prunus is marked for Tai Chang Long. Another of the Cantonese makers, the workshop appears to have made a speciality of this idiosyncratic wavy-edged form that copies the English spittoon or the Portuguese cuspidor. It is unlikely they were intended as vessels for excess saliva, but instead simply an example of how a European form took on new life in the hands of a Chinese silversmith. It has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500 ($1,950-$3,300).
Other uncommon forms in the Gerard collection include a Qing epergne, or centerpiece, with dragon’s head feet marked for the Shanghai maker Kun He and the retailer Wo Shing (estimate £2,000-£3,000, or $2,600-$3,900).
Kun He operated in Shanghai between 1880 and 1925, producing well-made holloware often using cast and applied decoration. A similar epergne by the maker formed part of the Chinese Export Silver exhibition held by London dealer John Sparks in 1990.
