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A Cache of Chinese Silverware, Hidden in an Attic for 80 Years, Heads to Auction

A Chinese silver tea set by Zeewo, Shanghai. (Photo: Kinghams/ artnet)

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By Verity Babbs

November 14, 2024
4:56 pm
Los Angeles, CA

The consignor had no clue about the collection’s existence until earlier this year. A large collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century Chinese silverware is heading to auction at Kinghams Auctioneers in the Cotswolds, England, after it was rediscovered in a family attic where it had been sitting for 80 years. The collection of around 100 individual silver items was amassed by an Englishman between 1927 and 1941, who passed away after nine months in the Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre internment camp in Shanghai. Following his death, the man’s house staff had kept safe his trove of silver objects, which was reclaimed by his widow and son in 1945. For nearly 80 years, the collection languished untouched in the family attic—until the collector’s granddaughter was alerted to its existence

The consignor had no clue about the collection’s existence until earlier this year.

A large collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century Chinese silverware is heading to auction at Kinghams Auctioneers in the Cotswolds, England, after it was rediscovered in a family attic where it had been sitting for 80 years.

The collection of around 100 individual silver items was amassed by an Englishman between 1927 and 1941, who passed away after nine months in the Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre internment camp in Shanghai. Following his death, the man’s house staff had kept safe his trove of silver objects, which was reclaimed by his widow and son in 1945.

A selection of silverware included in Kingham’s upcoming Silver and Objects of Vertu sale. (Photo: Kinghams/ artnet)

For nearly 80 years, the collection languished untouched in the family attic—until the collector’s granddaughter was alerted to its existence upon her father’s death in 2024. She first showed the hoard to Kinghams’s associate director and antique silver specialist Matthew Lafite, who deemed it “wonderful,” before consigning the lot to the auction house.

“The family history and provenance, in addition to the lovely quality of the items,” Lafite added, make this offering “something rather special indeed.”

Three late nineteenth or early-twentieth-century Chinese silver baby’s rattles. (Photo: Kinghams/ artnet)

The majority of the silverware are between 105 and 125 years old; some are being sold individually and others in groups at Kinghams’s 356-lot Silver & Objects of Vertu sale on November 15 at their Moreton-in-Marsh base in the Cotswolds.

Among the items up for sale are a clutch of cutlery, all featuring their artisans’ chop marks, which are stored in a fitted presentation case; a sleek cigarette case carved with a dragon on the front and a bamboo design on the back; and an early 20th-century salver bearing another dragon etching, this one depicted chasing a pearl.

The 17 lots are expected to raise more than £10,000 ($13,000), and the highest value estimate belongs to a silver sterling three-piece tea set created by Zeewo, a silversmith based in Shanghai, featuring a high-relief dragon design.

group of Chinese export silver-coloured metal wares. Image (Photo: Kinghams/ artnet)

Elsewhere in the sale, the item expected to sell for the highest price is an 18-carat gold beaker created by Rod Kelly in 2009. The 13-ounce beaker features a low relief design of oak leaves and acorns, raised by hand. Kelly is one of the U.K.’s leading living silversmiths and has undertaken commissions by the British Royal Family and British government. The beaker is expected to reach £20,000–£30,000 ($26,000–$39,000) and has the highest estimated value of the sale by £14,000 ($18,000).

2024 has been a lucky year for people discovering forgotten gems in their attics. Since the start of the year a guitar belonging to John Lennon, a sketch by JMW Turner, and a portrait by Rembrandt have all hit the headlines after being unearthed in attics.

Source: Artnet