CHINESE CLOUDS HAVE ALWAYS HAD SILVER LININGS!    中國的雲總是有銀襯裡！

Historically, silver has always had a greater value within China than anywhere else in the world. Today, as with most things Chinese, we find history repeating itself. In the 16th century silver had a value double in China to that of Europe, the very same phenomenon I am seeing today. While items of Chinese Export Silver are achieving record values in American and European auction houses, in many cases the self-same items appear in dealers’ showrooms in Shanghai and Hong Kong at double the price. More importantly, they are selling! To highlight this, I’ve peppered this article with examples of high quality Chinese Export Silver that are being offered for sale in China at values generally double that of the West – most of the items were originally acquired in the UK or USA.

A large circa 1860 Chinese Export Silver tray by Canton maker Gem Wo being offered for sale in a reputable

Shanghai dealer for $20,000

China is virtually the only nation in the world to have based it’s entire economy on silver.  Unlike any other nation in history, silver was highly prized by the succession of Chinese dynasties and was the bedrock of almost 1200 years of trade with the outside world; by the time the Ming dynasty established itself, the Chinese focus on silver as the bedrock foundation of the nation had reached never before seen heights. China was, by far, the dominant buyer of silver worldwide. Spanish America, Mexico and Peru to be precise, literally erupted into silver mining producing massive quantities. Between the years 1500-1800, over 80% of the entire world’s silver came from this source, estimated at around 150,000 tons.

Towards the late 16th century and into the early 17th century, the exchange rate for gold against silver in Spain was between 1:12 and 1:14. In China the rate was between 1:5 and 1:7. This clearly demonstrates that silver had an intrinsic value double that of Europe within China! Such a divergent value of a single commodity creates exceptional prospects for what is known as “profitable arbitrage trade”; the simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from a difference in the price or value – trade that profits by exploitation of price or value differences of identical or similar financial instruments on different markets or in different forms. In some ways, China was utilising a financial strategy that is not a million miles from what we recognise as a “hedge fund” strategy today!

Mexico tried in vain to limit the amount of silver being shipped to China trying to keep it in the region of 150 tons annually. They more or less achieved this, however it is generally estimated that in excess of 300 tons annually was managed to be smuggled out and onwards to China. Manila was shipping 50 tons annually.

To put this into some perspective, fifty tons of silver is approximately the average annual exports to Asia by Portugal, the Dutch and the English East India Companies combined in the 17th century.

The amount of silver pouring into the Ming treasury was in the region of $190 billion in today’s values. The Ming dynasty was responsible for over 30% of the entire world’s GDP. Silver, skilled artisans and an almost fortress-like protectionism remained a constant up until the Communist Revolution.

A stunning and quite rare two-handled small bowl by Tientsin maker Yong Xing Cheng weighing 180gm, offered for sale in Shanghai at $2700

Fast-forwarding to the present day, we are seeing history repeating itself in China where Silver is concerned. The buoyancy of Chinese Export Silver as an antique silver category is due to an equation made up of the growing awareness of the silver combined with the growing affluent middle class in China; there currently are a staggering 150 million middle class and affluent people in China today. The liquid spending power of the Chinese middle class in just 2 years time will be in the region of a trillion dollars.

Today, there are 7000 dollar billionaires and 125,000 multi millionaires in Shanghai alone. In the 2010 census, the population of Shanghai was 23 million. In Beijing there are 9000 billionaires.

In the whole of the UK there are 73 billionaires. There are fewer than 300 billionaires in the whole of the European Union.

 In just one generation, China will have approximately 1.4 billion middle class compared to an estimated 360 million in the USA and 414 million in the whole of Europe.

A large circa 1895 Wang Hing rose bowl, weight 560gm, offered for sale in Shanghai at $5000

None of this staggering information should lessen the perception of Chinese Export Silver as a highly significant silver category. I should say here that I am constantly criticised by so-called “experts” and “academics” of portraying Chinese Export Silver with a “too commercial slant”, many of these comments come from museum-centric forums that I contribute to. Talking about high values, it seems, “cheapens” the inherent artistic values. I have to say I find this bizarre; nobody flinches when a Rothko hits a record hammer price in auction. When applied to fine art, price, it seems, becomes the marker of the greatness of an art work, yet it is not allowed to be spoken of when discussing the merits of an important silver object. Is this some convoluted inverted snobbery, I ask myself!

 A circa 1900 Hung Chong teaset and tray [not shown] currently offered for sale

in a dealer’s showroom in Shanghai for a staggering $27,000. In a UK or USA  auction house

one would expect to achieve a hammer price of $9000 [with tray]

All the items illustrated in this article are high quality and important items. The phenomenon on values within China cannot and should not be allowed to detract from quality of workmanship in exactly the same way as the $155million paid for Picasso’s “La Reve” and $100million for Andy Warhol’s “Eight Elvises” hasn’t detracted from the paintings’ importance.

 The Chinese preoccupation with silver continues and in many ways acts as the driver for the resurgent interest in Chinese Export Silver even though ironically the silver was, in the main, originally made for the West and not the Chinese home market at the time. And more recently, the Chinese government, that once forbade ownership of precious metals, has now lifted the ban and China has introduced silver bullion bars which the middle class are urged to invest in backed up by a state run China Central Television ad campaign. So silver, yet again, is being seen as favoured investment. While this has nothing to do with antique silver per se, it does highlight the fact that a 1200 year love-affair with silver can fuel the renaissance of appreciation and awareness of Chinese Export Silver.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Adrien von Ferscht’s website is the largest online information resource for Chinese Export Silver: www.chinese-export-silver.com

His Catalogue of Chinese Export Silver Makers’ Marks [1785-1940] is the largest collector’s guide for Chinese Export Silver available, with information on 155 makers and 133 pages of in-depth history. It is updated every 6-8 months and is only available as a download file. The single purchase price acquires the Catalogue plus all subsequent editions free of charge. Adrien also encourages people to share images and ask questions. The Catalogue is available at: 

http://chinese-export-silver.com/catalogue-of-makers-marks/

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Acknowledgments to Danny Cheng for translation and to Zhu Weizhe for sharing some of the images in this article.  All others are from Adrien von Ferscht’s research database.

This article was written by Adrien von Ferscht exclusively for WorthPoint as part of a collaboration agreement

Adrien von Ferscht is an Honorary Research Fellow at University of Glasgow’s Scottish Centre for China Research