Page 701 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Whether the enamel was removed through wear and tare or it was originally made this way is difficult to tell - the
enamel doesn’t appear to have been applied in a particularly expert way, or at least in a way a skilled enamel
artist from Peking might have produced.

The dragon swirling around the side of the box seems to be related to the dragon on the matchbox sleeve. The
addition of the flying bat frieze around the edge of the lid - a symbol of happiness and joy and having an
identical sound, in Chinese, fu, as the word for good fortune.
Placing dragons on items that were likely to be bought as
mementoes is obviously commonplace, but to create such well-
worked dragons on high quality items is slightly different.
Dragons, though, were obviously high on the list of Tai Hua’s
list of preferred decorative motifs.

Images courtesy of .925-1000.com;

http://chinese-export-silver.com
Image Library Archive