Page 525 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Who ever was the creative mind behind the
Luen Wo name was, like many of his
contemporaries, a master of theatre. Luen Wo,
however, paid as much attention to small items
as large, resulting in extraordinary goblets
such as the circa 1890 example [left]. The
writing set [bottom] and these wonderful shell
open salts [below] would immediately convert a
desk or a dining table into something
completely other.

The following illustration shows a tea
set by Luen Wo that is probably
unique in the entire Chinese Export
Silver repertoire. Against a basket
weave textured ground each piece has
a l i z a r d a n d a s c a r a b b e e t l e
dramatically crawling across. The two
lids have finials in the form of a frog.