Page 653 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

This Sing Fat double-headed dragon-inspired reticulated table centre gondola basket is a major statement piece
and was almost certainly a bespoke commissioned item. It is made all the more grander by its impressive and
highly unusual horned dragon-head feet. The piece achieves that
extraordinary mix of the high Victorian style and the traditional high Chinese
style; they are styles that, in the right hands, seem to compliment each other
and in an extrovert piece of silver.

This item though, has one particularly unusual and slightly puzzling feature
that appears on the silver marks. It carries marks for Sing Fat, which appears
to be the original or main mark and an additional mark for Wing Fat. Since
there was no logical connection between Sing Fat and Wing Fat to the best of
our knowledge, this may well remain a mystery, This is also by no means a
singular instance of pairing of these two marks.

Equally grand in its own way,
this circa 1880 lidded butter
dish. Decorated with repoussé
chrysanthemum garlands and
superb inverted ziggurat feet,
the lid has the unusual
addition of a finial in the form
of a horned water buffalo, one
of the 12 animals of the
Chinese zodiac. Nevertheless,
it is an incongruous choice of
a finial for an item that is
decorated in the Chinese
manner - a butter dish, in
principle, is not an item any
Chinese person would have
need for, given most dairy
products are not part of the
Chinese diet.