A large late 19^th / early 20^th century Chinese export silver bowl, Canton circa 1900, retailed by On Hing

Qing dynasty. Of rounded hemispherical form with a moulded upon a tapering collet foot. The body with an upper chased and pierced border of flowering prunus. The body with chased and embossed decoration of alternating panel of Chinese dragons amidst clouds, flowering prunus attended to by birds, and a group of figures one holding a child against a house and a magnolia tree, the other group against a fir tree. The front with a vacant cartouche formed as the flaming sacred pearl. The foot flat chased with a border of plantain leaves. Marked underneath with retailer’s mark OH, ON HING, and numeral 90.

Diameter – 29.9 cm / 11.7 inches

Height – 15.8 cm / 6.25 inches

Weight – 1378 grams / 44.3 ozt

Upon the mark On Hing, Dr Adrien von Ferscht writes: On Hing is, in my opinion Yuan Xing 逺興 a Canton silversmith. Typically when a Chinese mark appears only in a Romanised format the surname "ON" is "YUAN". The Hokkien dialect form of "逺" is "OAN"; many Chinese silversmiths were ethnically Hokkien.