Page 45 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Qing Dynasty spanned the eighteenth, nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century
and saw Chinese silver making reach new levels of refinement and output. Rooted in the
tradition, skills and craftsmanship of the past, silver making was reinvigorated and became
dynamic. Stimulated by increasing demand, Chinese silversmiths excelled in producing an
extraordinarily diverse repertoire, with styles that demonstrated true artistic and technical
mastery. Coming at the end of well over 1200 years of silver making tradition, it is this
silver that I believe to be the absolute zenith of Chinese silver work.

Silver did continue to be produced in China post 1949, including the Cultural Revolution
years 1966-1976, albeit it within the rigid framework of state-owned workshops and in a
much reduced quantity. Annoyingly, silver from this period does appear regularly in
auctions and e-commerce sites and is more often than not wrongly attributed to “The Post
China Trade & Republic Period”. Very little of this silver can be deemed as having any
artistic or creative merit. There are, however, silversmiths working in China today who are
producing high quality items that demonstrate the art of silver making has been well and
truly resurrected.