Page 33 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

United States. Quite simply, this is incorrect and through research and findings carried out
in the past six years, a far truer picture and understanding of this complex silver
phenomenon is now known*. None of this, however, greatly affects the findings of
Carlson’s analysis.

As a counter reference, XRF analysis was first carried out on two Spanish ‘8 Reales’
Mexican silver coins [no dates were given for the coins] which were found to have an
average of:

% Silver % Copper % Gold

92.64 ± 0.08 6.85 ± 0.06 0.49 ± 0.01

The silver objects were divided into three manufacturing periods using Crosby Forbes as a
guide and then sub-divided into what at the time were believed to have been makers’s
marks, but were in fact retail silversmiths’ marks. The fact that Chinese retail silversmiths
used outside artisan workshops and as a result had no effective ‘quality’ control over the
purity of silver being used should not unduly compromise Carlson’s findings, but at the
time of the research, Carlson believed the marks to be those of actual makers, as did
Crosby Forbes.

The findings clearly demonstrate a variation of the average silver purity according to the
period of manufacture the items were attributed to. That attribution could only have been a
subjective one and it is unclear who carried out the identification of objects and when that
was done - both of which are relevant given how much the understanding of Chinese
Export Silver has changed since the 1980s/1990s.

DATE No. Items %Silver %Copper %Gold %Lead
pre-1810 9 91.90 ± 3.30 7.80 ± 2.80 0.20 ± 0.10 0.10 ± 0.10

1840-1885 12 90.70 ± 3.00 8.70 ± 2.90 0.20 ± 0.10 0.20 ± 0.10

post 1885 27 92.30 ± 2.90 6.70 ± 2.90 0.06 ± 0.05 0.20 ± 0.10
Average 48 91.63 7.73 0.15 0.16

The analysis was further expanded to include 87 items of Chinese Export Silver flatware
flatware [cutlery]:

DATE No. Items %Silver %Copper %Gold %Lead

1785-1810 20 89.80 ± 2.60 9.60 ± 2.50 0.20 ± 0.10 0.20 ± 0.10

1840-1885 26 86.10 ± 5.50 12.30 ± 2.30 0.20 ± 0.10 0.20 ± 0.10
post 1885 41 92.00 ± 4.80 7.60 ± 4.80 0.03 ± 0.03 0.20 ± 0.10

Average 87 89.30 9.83 0.14 0.20