Enquiry about object: 6417
Unusual Enamelled, Pierced, Chinese Export Silver Bowl by Wang Hing, with Original Glass Liner
Guangdong (Canton) & Hong Kong, China circa 1880
diameter: 12.5cm, height: 5.5cm, weight (without glass): 128g, weight (with glass): 366g
Provenance
UK art market
This very pleasing Chinese export silver bowl is pierced and chased with chrysanthemum flowers and leaves around the sides and base. It retains its original clear glass bowl insert.
Unusually, the flowers around the sides have been enamelled in red, purple and green.
Silversmiths in China often used enamel particularly for items of filigree and also silver jewellery, but not often is it in seen on items of Chinese export silver made for Western export markets.
The interior base is engraved with flower designs and these can be seen through the glass insert, as one peers inside.
The silver rim of the bowl is reinforced to give the overall structure greater sturdiness.
The underside of the base is stamped with ‘WH’, ’90’ and a Chinese ideogram. The marks are for Wang Hing.
Wang Hing was a firm that was active in Canton and Hong Kong in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and first quarter of the twentieth century.
The silver bowl and the glass insert are both in excellent condition.
References
Chan, D.P.L., Chinese Export Silver: The Chan Collection, published in conjunction with the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, 2005.
Forbes, H.A.C. et al, Chinese Export Silver 1785-1885, Museum of the American China Trade, 1975.
Marlowe, A.J., Chinese Export Silver, John Sparks, 1990.
