Page 39 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

BUILDING UPON CROSBY FORBES’ LEGACY

One of my many mantras is “had it not been for The China Trade, Chinese Export Silver
would not have existed”.

I have equally believed that for the entire time I have carried out my research, had it not
been for Dr Henry Ashton Crosby Forbes, there would probably be no awareness of
Chinese Export Silver today. As such, I have always viewed Crosby Forbes’ body of work
as the foundation for my own work. That foundation was obviously bolstered by the
subsequent later work that John Devereux Kernan carried out in tandem with The Chait
Collection. Kernan acted as a true historian scholar when he acknowledged that his work
would be built upon and superseded - he even acknowledged looking forward to it.

Dr. Crosby Forbes, 1945

While my own body of work is intended to create a knowledge base and an understanding
of Chinese Export Silver, it has moved on, for want of a better expression, I do not
anticipate that it will be the ultimate body of work on this subject. As with all scholarly work,
it is a stepping stone that will be constantly revised as my research continues; others will
at some point in time take it forward into realms hitherto unknown.