Stunning museum quality piece
His work sells for much more than this, and this is an absolute beautiful piece with the gilding inside the silver
No damage and no monogram
No words to describe this beauty
3.5 inches high
Approx 130 grams
A Chinese export silver mug with flowers and foliage engraved within decorative panels; and a dragon handle. Marked with LC, for Leeching, 利升 (LiSheng), an important retailer in Canton who began in the 1840s and expanded to sell in Hong Kong in circa 1880. Leeching was one of the most important retailers in Canton after the 1st Opium War, and some of the finest mugs and tankards were supplied by the firm
Leeching
(circa 1830 - 1895)
Although, as it happens with the majority of the Chinese export silver makers, we dont know the real identity of Leeching, it is easy to recognise the same high quality and fine design in all the pieces marked by the company.
Leeching had shops both in Canton and Shanghai where he retailed luxury items, jewellery and silver, mainly presentation pieces, tankards and goblets very much sought after by the Western clientele.
Leeching early pieces imitate the European neoclassical style and can compete with the finest Paul Storr production and can be recognised just for the heavy weight. In the second half of the century, Leeching introduced traditional Chinese motifs to decorate its pieces (dragons, bamboo leaves and genre scenes), but always maintaining neoclassical forms. Scholar Adrien Von Ferscht describes Leeching artworks as monumental (see A. Von Ferscht, Chinese Export Silver 1785-1940, 4th edition 2015).
The firm also supplied Hancocks, the silver retailer based in London who also worked for Queen Victoria.
