Page 229 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Storr who was considered the finest English silversmith and a contemporary of Cutshing.
Cutshing neo-classical “Georgian” flatware was much sought after by the best Massachusetts and New York
families, some of whom were involved in the China Trade. The dessert spoon [above] is part of a colossal set of
Cutshing cutlery that was part of the Whitney Family household in Boston and later found itself in New York.
Being far heavier than English or American silver and considerably cheaper, especially if family members
managed to order it directly from Canton, the Cutshing cutlery would have been a conversation piece among the
great and the good of Boston and New York.

These goblets date to circa 1850. Goblets and Chinese Export Silver made a happy marriage almost from the
beginning of the Chinese Export Silver manufacturing period, but almost always those goblets were decorated
with tradition Chinese decorative motifs. Here one finds something completely different , almost devoid of any
semblance of having been made at the hands of a Chinese silversmith. The motif of thistle heads flowering on
thistle stems is not as strange and this first might appear. It is well recored that Scottish merchants were the
largest single national representation in Canton and in the China Trade, with the two most renowned and
powerful merchants in Canton, William Jardine and James Matheson, being Scots and, most importantly, in
Canton and in residence at the time.