Asian Art

Chinese export silver

Chinese export silver is silverware made in China for export, mainly to Europe. It is analogous to the much larger production of Chinese export porcelain, but unlike this remained largely confined to ornamental objects rather than practical tableware. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through the Chinese Canton System (Canton Port) and after that, the opium war, the Treaty of Nanking and Treaty of Tientsin, Qing dynasty China became a major exporter for fine Chinese goods such as tea, spices and porcelain etc. to Europe, Germany, France, Russia and America and north Africa. The Treaty trading ports were further extended throughout the entire Qing Dynasty's land. Historically, silver has been more valuable in China than Europe, relative to gold and other commodities, and European traders had for centuries paid for their purchases of Chinese goods with silver. Now for the first time, price levels made the importation of silver objects made for export to Europe attractive. Though the Chinese government had for centuries been content to see renewable or inexhaustible luxury products such as silk or ceramics leave China as trade goods or diplomatic gifts, they had tried to retain as much silver as possible in China. Now they were unable to do this. Just as the Chinese potters produced Chinese export porcelain for Western consumers, Chinese silversmiths also created elaborately decorated objects for international clients. Early works of Chinese Export Silver was intended to reproduce or copy objects in European styles. However, in copying the European style or model objects, the Chinese artisans later managed to add to new decorations such Chinese motifs as the dragon, flowers, bamboo and scenes of life at the Chinese court. Blending Western forms with Asian decoration including dragons, bamboo, and Chinese landscapes, these pieces reflect the long-standing cultural and commercial exchange between East and West.

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See also

• ▸Big-character poster
• ▸Evolution of mammals
• ▸History of Manchuria

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.