Page 783 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

W.A. [SILVERSMITH’S FULL NAME UNDOCUMENTED]
Canton
circa 1845-1900

There is a school of thought that this is a mark for Kwong Wa. This is an entirely wrong assumption; there is no
evidence to support this belief and my current opinion is there is no connection whatsoever. This is one of the
oft-repeated identification errors auctions houses make in cataloguing.

It is not the first time a silver-
mounted coconut standing cup
was created by a Chinese
silversmith. There are several
precedents, the most notable
being the cup created by Cutshing
on the cusp of the 18th and 19th
century.
There are some similarities
between this and the Cutshing cup
- mainly the silver-capped rim, but
other than this and the fact it is a
coconut, the similarities end there.

As with the Cutshing cup, that a
coconut finds itself in 19th century
Canton being incorporated into a
silver cup is not that strange. Many
of the English, Scottish and
American merchants connected
with the China Trade and Canton
itself were also connected with the
sugar trade in the West Indies -
some even owning plantations
there.

Silver and coconut cups were
sought after in England as far back
as Elizabethan times and for
centuries were part of many a
cabinet of curiosity across Europe.
The W.A. cup is circa 1850.