Page 18 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Despite the noticeable growth in awareness of Chinese Export Silver over the past three
years, there is still some reluctance by auction houses in the West accepting that the 155-
year production of this silver was vast. Production could even have rivalled in size that of
the British Georgian silver-making era. Whilst I have respect for most auction houses,
some continue in a state of denial over the size and significance of Chinese silver that
survived the turbulent years of history, which I regard as tantamount to an ‘ostrich in the
sand’ attitude.

It is estimated that there could be as many as 50,000 artisans who worked over the 155
years that span the Chinese Export Silver period and it is these artisans, their styles and
their respective silver marks which form the next stage of my research and which, unlike
the majority of work that went into this volume, will be carried out in China. The emerging
results of this new research will be a huge but necessary database; the new database
promises to reveal many new fascinating facts and stories of life in China and the world of
silver in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Focusing on the numbers, this represents an
extraordinary outpouring of creativity, so much so that it would be in order to regard the
entire manufacturing period as a Chinese Renaissance.

Drawing of a Fenghuang by J.J. van Waesberge from the book 'Toonneel van China’- Door veel, Zo Geestelijke
als Werreltijke, Geheugteekenen, Verscheide Vertoningen van de Natuur en Kunst’ by Athanasius Kircher,
circa 1664