East Asian Metalwork

Chinese export silver mug, ca 1860. Straight and upward tapering sides with applied pictorial frieze on engraved and stippled ground: Scenes of social life with contemplative sages and chaste maidens amongst palm trees and pagodas. Pastoral exoticism enlivened with scaly, slithering dragon handle...

A Chinese export silver bowl, profusely decorated with dragons among clouds on a matte background. The bowl has a vacant cartouche, and is fro...

A Chinese export silver bowl with blue glass liner. The bowl is pierced and has wonderfully detailed chrysanthemum decoration. The bowl has a vacant cartouche and sits on a plain col...

A Chinese export silver mug with flowers and foliage engraved within decorative panels; and a dragon handle. Marked with LC, for Leeching, 利升 (...

A Chinese Export silver bowl decorated with chrysanthemum against a matte background. Made by the firm of Lian xiang sheng of Shanghai and Ca...

A Chinese Export Silver Tray engraved with prunus on a matte background, with applied chrysanthemum decoration to the border, and with two b...

Chinese Export Silver Goblet, with prunus decoration. The goblet weighs 258g and dates from around 1885. Marked WH for Wang Hing '宏兴‘ whi...

Chinese Export Silver Bowl, profusely decorated with chrysanthemum, prunus, iris, and bamboo, and with a vacant circular cartouche. The bowl d...

A lovely Chinese silver bowl, embossed and chased with three birds and chrysanthemum against a textured matte background. Made by the firm of Shao Ji'绍记’, and retailed by Luen Hing '...

This delightful and extremely rare spoon and bowl pair exemplifies the remarkable artistry of Chinese export silver. Chinese silver pieces are renowned for their exceptional quality and unique designs, and the majority are entirely hand crafted. Today, many of these elaborate designs are housed in major museum collections, and remain a rarity on the market. Beginning in the 18th century, silver workshops in China specialized in the manufacture of silver export pieces for Western audiences. Typically bearing motifs that were popular amongst Americans and Europeans such as dragons, bamboo and floral patterns, these charming pieces were all beautifully handcrafted with the utmost skill. Today, important pieces of Chinese export silver such as this one can be found in many of the major museum collections, and are highly valued amongst collectors. The bowl boasts a fluid, undulating rim exquisitely engraved to depict bamboo, a motif which continues throughout the bowls body. Accompanying the bowl is a matching silver spoon, its handle intricately modeled as a vine with floral buds climbing upwards to its bowl, which seems to bloom with lovely applied buds and flowers. The spoon features the mark of Wing Fat, a firm active in Hong Kong from 1875-1930 and Sing Fat...

A Chinese Export silver mug with dragon handle, decorated with five birds among bamboo against a matte background. There is a round vacant cartouche to t...

A Chinese silver goblet profusely decorated with chased, richly defined chrysanthemum against a matte background and is supported by two intertwi...