Page 12 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

The Chinese character mark will invariably be the mark of the actual artisan silversmith
and is frequently accompanied by a statement of silver purity. In the absence of any formal
assay system in China, such purity marks exist on the whim of the artisan or retail
silversmith. However, it is a whim formulated from their knowledge that raw silver was
derived from mainly melted psych ingots or silver trade dollars.

The Chinese mark is therefore the most relevant and because of this Chinese collectors
and dealers use it not only to identify a piece but also to judge its merit. The same
benchmark exists for other world silver categories - the fact an item might carry the mark
of Paul Storr, for example, tells us of its supreme quality, the fact it may also carry marks
for Garrard the London court retail jeweller and silversmith is simply a further endorsement
of quality.

Frustratingly, much of the earlier Chinese Export Silver of the late 18th and early 19th
century that was made in Canton carries so-called pseudo-hallmarks and invariably
excludes any reference to the artisan silversmith. It is frustrating because some of the
finest example of the skill of Chinese silversmiths are to be found in this early neo-classical
silver. The absence of any Chinese mark and the style much of this silver took is why the
majority of Chinese collectors have yet to discover its uniqueness and its sheer genius.
For a Cantonese silversmith who most likely never ever left the confines of the alleys of
the silver district of old Canton to be able to produce silver of a quality and style that rivals
the finest London or Birmingham silversmiths should be a testament to the supreme
artistry of these silversmiths. That alone should make it worthy of having a place of honour
in Chinese cultural history since it is no mean feat.

Canton, however, was not the only silver making centre in China; Shanghai, Jiujang,
Tianjin [Tienstin] and Beijing had established working silversmiths, many of whom could
trace the existence of their workshops back to at least the 17th century. An Imperial city
could not have existed without silversmiths and Beijing was no exception. The style of
silver created there during the Chinese Export Silver years was often quite different to
items created anywhere else in China, often incorporating another traditionally Beijing art -
enamel work. It is only in recent years have we begun to become reacquainted with the
highly skilled masters of their art. Collectively, their silver exclusively carried Chinese
character marks and was certainly of equal quality of workmanship to their Canton
counterparts and it is only recently that Western auction houses and dealers have begun
to understand this. Yet this silver which carries only Chinese marks is considered to be
Chinese Export Silver. None of this silver took a blatantly classical Western style and prior
to 1842 Shanghai, Jiujiang, Beijing and Tianjin had no direct connection with the China
Trade. Knowing this, Westerners would do well to question the wisdom of imposing a title
on a silver category that is not wholly befitting and the Chinese would do well to throw off
the shackles of the stigma which has arisen as a result of the silver title they had no part in
creating.

It was partially the dynamic of East meeting West during what we now term the ‘China
Trade’ period that gave birth to the phenomenon of what we have come to call ‘Chinese
Export Silver’.

Chinese Export Silver is probably the most inappropriate name that could have ever been
tagged to this silver category for reasons this book will explain in detail; it is a title
conferred upon it by American researchers in the 1960s in the context of Chinese silver
that happened to be in America as a direct result of American merchants’ involvement in