Page 201 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

CHIENAM
Queens Road, Hong Kong
circa 1850-1890

Until quite recently, Chienam was believed to have been a rarely seen retail and manufacturing silversmith
operating as a small workshop with an integral retail arm. After some rather obscure research, it has since
become apparent that Chienam was a trading name of a retail outlet founded in the early days of the British
colony in Hong Kong by the Chinese opium merchant Chinam. Sadly his days on Hong Kong were to be short as
he was to die of one of the many fevers that swept Hong Kong in those pioneering days, but the Chinam-owned
‘hong’ operated under the main name of Tun Wo at Marine Lot 54.

A circa 1870 raised-work snuff box [above]
decorated with a traditional figural scene on the
lid and floral and foliate symmetrical motifs on
the sides and reverse side.
A circa 1860 classical snuff box [left] with an
elaborate monogram and fluting at each edge as
the only decoration.