Page 59 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

STRANGE ANOMALIES

Chinese Export Silver is full of anomalies that at times can be really perplexing. But taken
in the context of a silver category that totally lacked any semblance of a system or assay
check, perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Collectors and researchers of Chinese Export Silver cannot fail to encounter these
conundrums.

Here is but one example. As with many things Chinese, any explanation can only be a
matter of conjecture.

Here is what would seem to be a pair of picture frames that look identical in every way, yet
one carries the silver marks of the retail silversmith Luen Wo, while the other carries the
mark of the retail silversmith Cum Wo. What is puzzling is the former operated in
Shanghai, while Cum Wo was a Hong Kong silversmith.