Page 809 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

The round trinket box [previous illustration] is fairly typical of early 20th century Wai Kee merchandise. If there
was any mainland China equivalent, Wing On Company probably is the most similar; well-made but no fire-
crackers.
However, in the last decade of the 19th century Wai
Kee could be found selling items such as this caged
perfume flagon. At first glance this obviously
presents as an object with more character and silver-
making expertise, but this same perfume bottle was
to be found at Wang Hing and other retail
silversmiths with only slight variations to distinguish
them

Unlike the caged whisky decanters that used the
iconic Haig Dimple bottle as the object to be caged,
these green bottles were specially made in Hong
Kong [up until the late 19th century, China did not
have the capability to produce coloured glass items].

Each retail silversmith appears to have had its own
“signature” stopper but the cage work was always
split between a collar and a main body cage.
The fact that an artisan workshop or workshops
produced this item in significant numbers should not
detract from its quality; silver cage work had to be
skilfully executed to create such a successfully
aesthetic result.

Chinese silver coin dishes were immensely popular in
the early 20th century, but it has to be said that this
example is certainly above average, albeit obviously a
small production line item.
The coin is known as the “Fat Man” silver dollar; the fat
man being Yuan Shih Kai. It was produced between
1914 and 1921, which would give an approximate age
for this dish. Commemorative souvenirs do not indicate
an inferior object - Josiah Wedgwood, after all, was
probably one of the first to create them.

Again, this circa 1915-20 5-piece tea and
coffee service demonstrates the “safe
merchandise/quality merchandise” that was
synonymous with the Wai Kee name.