Page 351 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Hung Chong is recorded as having made quite a number
of unusual pieces, but this small simple beaker has got to
be one of the most unusual. To all intents and purposes
this piece could be a George III beaker with a reeded lip
until the beaker is upturned and the Hung Chong mark is

clearly there on the base.

The coffee pot [right] is also unusual
inasmuch as it not an English or American
style. However, the pot carries an engraved
insignia [below]:

The Latin motto “malo mori, quam faedari” means “Death rather than disgrace”
and is the arms of the Marquess of Athlone who was also known as Prince
Adolphus of Teck, the 1st Marquess of Cambridge - a great grandson of King
George III and the younger brother of Queen Mary, Queen Eiizabeth II’s
grandmother.
Prince Adolphus. although born in England, was a Teck, German nobility. The
coffee pot is redolent of the silver style in Germany circa 1910. Why the pot was
made in China and sold by Hung Chong bearing the insignia it remains a
mystery. Prince Adolphus had no connection with China, South East Asia or India
even though he was in the British Army.

[Left] A picture of Adolphus in 1902 for Punch Magazine.