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AN ANTIQUE 19TH C. CHINESE CHAMPLEVÉ AND SILVER OBJET D'ART WITH AN INSCRIPTION

An unusal desk object in two parts, champlevé on a metal base of copper with silver metal decorations of three scholars gathered together, enameld lotus flower, antique vases with flower arrangements, a yin and yang symbol as well as shou symbols all around the rotund, oval base, a demi-lune stack top that inserts into the base that has a hinged top and two holes that are independent of the main hollow in the base, which has a hinged top. Upon lifting the lid of the base, one finds a hidden inscription. Quite an unusal object.

A good educated guess has been that it is some sort of paraphanelia object used for smoking and the best thought being that is was used as an opium paste box. If this is the case, then the object would most likely date to the mid-19th century or thereabouts. This date can certainly be a good probability, judging from the type of antique champlevé used as well as the natural wear on the surfaces of the silver figures. This is similar as what is seen on the surface of 19th century and earlier silver coins that lose their facial definition after years of constant use.

There were two periods of British/Chinese Opium Wars... The First Opium War (1839–1842) and The Second Opium War (1856–1860), which culminated in foreign troops from England, France and India ransacking and destroying the Imperial Summer Palace.

The inscription on this curious art object, interestingly, reads from right to left and not vertically...

漢口
傅順自（製？
天XX白
In the city of Hankou
Fu Shun made this for self-use

Given that the characters are written horizontally, from right to left, it is speculated that the object was produced at a time when changes were happening to the traditional way of vertical writing from top to bottom.

Hankou is an historical city whose name if found in poetry dating back to as early as the Tang dynasty. It was one of three cities that were merged together to form the modern-day Wuhan municipality, which is the capital of the Hubei province, China. Hankou used to be divided into five, foreign-held concessions belonging to the United Kingdom (115 acres, est. 1862), France (60 acres, est. 1886), Russia (60 acres, est. 1886), Germany (100 acres, est. 1895) and Japan (32 acres, est. 1898). The city stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers where the Han falls into the Yangtze. Later, in 1900, Hankou was the destination of Christian missionaries who were fleeing from the Boxers Rebellion in the Northern provinces. It was involved with the early 20th century revolution wherein the Republic of China sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and eventually fell under the control of the Republic of China.

Date: QING Dynasty, mid-late 19th Century

D: H 3.5in x L 3in x D 2in

PROVENANCE
Property of a Gentleman.

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