A late 19^th / early 20^th century Straits Chinese silver salve box, Singapore or possibly Siamese (Thai) circa 1900

Of rounded circular form upon a collet foot with a pull off lid. The lid centred with a flat chased encircled Chinese character reserved with matted decoration, otherwise with flat chased decoration of honeysuckle with trailing leaves, all against a ring punched ground and between meander scroll borders. Marked twice underneath in Chinese, one with YU ZHEN 毓珍 in an oval cartouche, the other obscured.

Diameter – 8 cm / 3.15 inches

Weight – 144 grams / 4.63 ozt

Salve boxes contained beeswax sometimes mixed with coconut oil used to keep the betel leaf chewers lips moist and to prevent the betel juice from adhering to the lips while chewing the betel quid.