Featured Got several exceptional silver piece. :P

My friend help to bring them back from Europe and north africa.
I will post them one by one in several topics.

This is the first one:

 

Spectacular!

 

{jawdrop} Chinese? Hong Kong?

 

WH 90 coin silver, it should be a chinese export.
Pretty large

 

Wow, so much detail on this, it is a beautiful piece Asian Fever

 

Same size as a German mug.

 

I always love your finds.I might even be a little envious.

 

Spare no expense

 

Absolutely gorgeous, Asian!

And not just any Chinese Export! I knew who the maker was before you even showed the mark. That is Wang Hing, major silversmith and retailer in Hongkong in the late 19th and early 20th century.
That must have been a shop I could have gone into and never find the exit:

http://chinese-export-silver.com/wang-hingtiffany-co/
(A site I highly recommend)

 

@Any Jewelry I got several piece of Wang Hing . One set of eight very tiny goblets with very detailed work of dragons. And another portable pocket flagon with dragon & cloudy pattern.

 

Sounds beautiful, Asian!
I only have one Wang Hing piece. Or should I say two, since it is a buckle (two halves):


I seem to have a growing collection of silver buckles, which is strange since I never wear a belt.

 

That's beautiful

I saw some designs like Guangxu Reign coins, that's pretty interesting for the items in that period.

 

Thank you, Asian. I thought I didn't do too badly for 15 euro.

I didn't know that was unusual for the period. Do you mean because they were of the period the buckle was made in, as opposed to a historically important period? Or coin decoration in that period in general?

I thought nothing of it, really, just another one of those wealth references. Very pretty though, and it complements the overall design.

 

Coin decoration is not that common for chinese jewelries or cloth wears, but it's pretty common for desk decoration or Fengshui Decors.
However, for your piece, the special meaning should be "福 禄 寿" Sanxing - three stars, you have two chinese words, 福 (Prosperity) & 寿 (Longevity), but missing the word 禄 (good income). As a result, these Guangxu coins are representing the missing word 禄(Lu) as good income.

Furthermore, the flowers could be matching bamboos. And special flowers representing 喜 (Xi - happiness) in chinese culture. Normally, we have Sanxing "福 禄 寿", and "福 禄 寿 喜". The Sanxing gods are very common and famous in culture, while the god(sometimes goddess) 喜(Xi) is not that common in culture. However, He(She) does exist and there's many historic paintings and books described about he(she).

 

Thank you so much for the extensive explanation, @Asian Fever . A buckle like a poem. I love symbolism, and more knowledge is always welcome.
I just copied it in my Chinese jewellery file, where the rest of the info on the buckle is.