Images(4)

Chinese tea caddy

Maker Hung Chong & Co

Date1904

Object number00044536

NameTea caddy

MediumSilver

DimensionsOverall: 135 x 93 mm, 292 g

ClassificationsTools and equipment

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

DescriptionThis Chinese tea caddy was exported during the prolific tea trade of the 19th and 20th century. It has a pear shaped body decorated with finely grained chrysanthemum blossoms. The cylindrical cover was used to measure tea prior to the introduction of tea caddy spoons and is inscribed with the date, 30th April 1904-1929. The base features three hallmarks, including the manufacturer's stamp of Hung Chong & Co, who worked out of Canton and Shanghai, China. It was owned and commissioned by an Australian merchant working in Shanghai, probably as a gift or memento.HistoryWestern merchants from America, Australian and Europe actively traded with China during the 19th and 20th century. On their ships they brought back items including metal domestic wares, paintings, furniture, carvings and tea. The exportation of silverware objects has been less acknowledged than other materials as Chinese artists commonly used pseudo-marks on their manufactured wares, making it difficult to distinguish them from products made in Europe or America. Founded in the 10th century the city of Shanghai is located in a swampy area east of Suzhou at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Its importance in the region grew due to its extensive irrigation system and it soon became a major cotton production and manufacturing centre with a population of over 250,000 people. In the 19th century the importance of Shanghai developed further as the city's strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River was perceived by the westerners as being an ideal location for trade with the Chinese hinterland. Following the First and Second Opium Wars Shanghai was recognised as one of the Treaty Ports established by the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, the 1843 Treaty of Bruges and the 1844 Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia and foreigners were allowed to establish trading factories and European settlements inside the city. These treaties opened the floodgate of western culture and influence into Shanghai. Over time two cities emerged: a chaotic Chinese city and a western city, inhabited mainly by Chinese. The western part of Shanghai was one of the most modern "European" cities in the world - often called the Paris of the East. New inventions like electricity and trams were quickly introduced, and westerners turned Shanghai into a huge metropolis with the western part of Shanghai nearly four times larger then the Chinese part in the early 20th century. British, American, French, German and Australian businesses made a great deal of money in the tea trade, real estate and finance and by the early 1920s half of all China's imports and exports passed through the city of Shanghai. Hung Chong & Co were influential and respected jewellers based out of Club Street, Honan Island Canton and 11B Nanking Road, Shanghai in China between 1850 and 1930. During this period Shanghai became one of the major tea trading ports in China with the introduction of steam navigation on the Yangtze River in 1861.SignificanceThis tea caddy represents the Chinese exportation of silverware by American, Australia and European merchants. It is a lovely example of Chinese silversmith ware and highlights the importance of tea as a western commodity in the 20th century.