CHINESE EXPORT SILVER: Hong Kong Nostalgia
The Hong Kong retail silversmith WAI KEE 惠記 [in Mandarin: HUI JI] is one of the few retailers that truly spans three centuries; founded in 1885, the firm is still operating in almost the same location by Pedder Street with the same specialities of pearls, jewellery and what has become known as Chinese export silver […]
CHINESE EXPORT SILVER: “Sailing into the tiger’s mouth”
The SHING WO [SHENG HE] 和勝 artisan silver workshop in Canton was probably the most masterful in creating detailed miniature items of silver; a much-overlooked area of late Qing and Republic era Chinese silver-making. What the West would probably call a “junk boat” finds its roots back in the Han dynasty; the Qing dynasty equivalent […]
THE WORLD OF CHINESE SILVER MINIATURES
In the past year there has been a noticeable increase in interest in Chinese silver miniature items from both the late Qing dynasty and the Republic era. Quite coincidentally this has been a period where my own research has focussed on collating and recording these items on the fast-growing image database that is part and […]