Page 49 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

of traditional Chinese dress became the fashion statement in every large city in the West
epitomised by Madame Chiang, wife of Chiang Kai-Shek, who was well on the way to
becoming an international style icon.

Madame Chiang with Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-Shek

Decadence was borne out of prosperity, which in turn generated ever more decadence
and wealth; a pattern that was being repeated in many of the major world cities of the time.
This caused a noticeable increase in the amount of silver being produced for both the
affluent home market as well as those overseas. Equally, there was a palpable change in
the style of silver being produced as well as new objects that were themselves products of
the age. If one object could encapsulate this early 20th century decadence, the cocktail
shaker does it admirably; Chinese Export Silver rose to the challenge.

Shanghai and Hong Kong at the beginning of the 20th century were parallel cities, both
expanding rapidly and both major international trading ports generating vast wealth.
Equally, the city that had been the forerunner of both, Canton, while losing its position and
raison d’être as an international trading city had become the city of revolutionaries. Canton
was a city in transition, yet it was doing so in an atmosphere of turmoil brought about by a
succession of men returning from sojourns in America and Britain. Many of them returned
as newly converted Christians and most of them with revolutionary ideas for a dynastic-
free state steeped in left-wing communist, bolshevik or socialist ideals. This turmoil caused
the gradual transfer of the remaining silver making in Canton to Shanghai and Hong Kong.

There are, however, “grey areas” of both style and places of manufacturing that are
associated with Chinese Export Silver. There were a number of countries bordering on
China that were effectively vassal states; Vietnam, Korea, Siam [Thailand], Tibet, Burma,
Formosa [Taiwan], Bhutan and Nepal etc. Straits Chinese silver, technically a silver