Page 782 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

An exquisite tankard by Wong Shing demonstrating the ability to excel at the dramatic portrayal of traditional
Chinese motifs into what is essentially a totally Western object. While Wong Shing was not alone in this
extraordinary ability to master the Georgian style and the high Chinese style, there is almost always a
uniqueness about a Wong Shing piece of silver.
Objects bearing the Wong Shing mark are sadly rare and it is equally sad that the Wong Shing mark is often
wrongly identified as [or assumed to be] Wo Shing and vice versa; even more sad is the fact this error is most
often made by auction houses. They are very different styles that come from two totally different cities and
spanning different manufacturing periods; Wong Shing also exclusively used the pseudo hallmark and we
rarely, if ever, know the identity of the artisan silversmith.

Auction houses and silver dealers often describe pseudo-hallmarks as if they were the real thing; there is no
relevance to alluding to a “lion passant” when the lion in question is pseudo trying and failing to be “passant”
and the “year mark” is not a year mark at all!
Images courtesy of: Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, UK; Berry & Co., San Jose, USA; Eldred’s, USA; Bonhams, UK;
Supershrink’s Storehouse of Silver; Hanlin Gallery, Hong Kong; Christie’s, London

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