Page 475 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

he made all the things in it, whereas Lee-ching is not a man’s name at all, any more than Great Western Railway
Company is a man’s name. It is what, in Chino-English, is called the Shop name. Chinese Shop names, as a rule,
give no clue whatever to the kind of business done; they are usually something nice, some fanciful idea, some
moral precept.”
He may not have physically made
everything in the shop but, as with all the
high quality Chinese retail silversmiths,
they were very much responsible for
design, quality and image as the
previously shown lidded standing cup
clearly demonstrates, while this slightly
later cup [right] simply verifies the
reputation Lee Ching had as a creator of
presentation items. It is one of the chief
reasons why it was imperative to open in
Hong Kong and Shanghai where the
giving of presentation pieces became an
obsession among the foreign residents.

While the ewer [below] might not appear
as a presentation piece, it was presented
as a “race cup” at Amoy Races and is
dated 1870. As with the previous pieces, it
is clear Lee Ching embraced the high
Victorian style in a very Chinese way but
always using a neo-classical form to
literally lavish it upon. The crab stock
handle is particularly skilful.

“Monumental” might be a good word to
describe Lee Ching presentation items!

Lee Ching, as were many of its compatriot retail
silversmiths, was a master of creating tankards, in
fact one gets a distinct impression there was not
only great competition among the retailers but also
the owning and giving of these tankards had become
an obsession among the foreign Sinophiles.

The tankard [right] is particularly interesting, not only for its
quality but because it was presented as a rowing trophy to the
crew of a race held in Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama was home to
some of the finest Japanese silversmiths of the period, so it is a
particular testimony to Lee Ching’s reputation that it was
preferred to a local silversmith. It is dated 1875.