Help Identifying a Tea Set

[zakman23]

Hello,

This is my first post here. I am posting this on behalf of my parents who are not tech savvy. They recently bought a silver tea set (Tea pot, creamer, sugar pot). The pictures are below. I am unsure if this tea set is Chinese or Japanese. Any information about the origin and what the marks mean would be appreciated.
Thanks

Tea Pot



Creamer



Sugar Pot



Hallmark

[davidross]

Welcome to the Forum.

Did the seller offer no information with this set? It would seem to be quite unusual to purchase a set like this without any accompanying description or provenance.

The form of the set as well as the style of the marks are definitely Chinese and not Japanese, but the marks are unknown to me. It might be helpful to have photos of marks on all three pieces (if they are marked).

Hopefully someone else will post a more satisfactory answer.

Regards
DR

[zakman23]

Welcome to the Forum.

Did the seller offer no information with this set? It would seem to be quite unusual to purchase a set like this without any accompanying description or provenance.

The form of the set as well as the style of the marks are definitely Chinese and not Japanese, but the marks are unknown to me. It might be helpful to have photos of marks on all three pieces (if they are marked).

Hopefully someone else will post a more satisfactory answer.

Regards
DR

David,

Thanks for your response. It was sold as being Chinese, however when the mark was showed to 2 different Chinese speakers they could not decipher the characters. They could not make sense of them, they suggested it may be Japanese. The marks are identical on all 3 pieces.

If anyone has any more information it would be much appreciated. Also on average what is purity of Chinese Silver?

[davidross]

Thank you for providing more information.

Most older pieces of Chinese export silver bear a purity mark, usually 90 (for 90%). The teaset seems to have no such mark. The marks in Chinese characters are usually the master or silversmith's mark, while those in alphabet (e.g, the SEWO mark) is probably that of the retailer.

I am not surprised that modern native Chinese would not recognize these marks, any more so than a Westerner today would recognize some long-gone shop or brand name from a century ago. The lower character 和 in the mark on the far right has many meanings, one of which signifies Japan (in that case, however, it would appears first in a compound, not second).

If you look through past posts in this section, there is a wealth of information about Japanese and Chinese silver that offers many points of comparison for your set. At the very least, I think you will come to conclusion that the set is Chinese and not Japanese.

Regards
David R

[davidross]

The third mark, 時和, is evidently the name of the Shanghai retailer who usually marks in alphabet ZEE WO. See:
http://www.925-1000.com/chinex_marks.html

I know of no other example of ZEE WO being marked as SE WO, so I put this forth as a plausible theory rather than a positive attribution. Perhaps someone else can offer more insight.

Regards
DR

[oel]

Hi David, found this; Zee Wo {Shi Wo} 370 Honan Road, Shanghai circa 1870-1925.
The real identity of this maker is actually Shi Wo. Zee Wo is literally a “bad” or “deliberately bad” transliteration of Shi Wo perhaps Se Wo is another bad translation.
From: Chinese Export Silver 1785-1940 Cataloque of Maker’s marks Researched and compiled by Adrien von Ferscht

Oel.

[davidross]

Hi Oel,

Thanks for posting this additional information. I also saw Adrien's helpful comments.

I agree, whether Zee Wo or Se Wo, both are rather poor transliterations, but Zee Wo is well documented with many CES pieces marked thus, while I have as yet found no examples of CES marked Se Wo.

It seems quite likely to me that this set is from Zee Wo for the following reasons:
(1) The similarity of the names Se Wo and Zee Wo;
(2) The presence of the Zee Wo name in Chinese characters;
(3) This retailer often left off a purity mark, even on larger pieces;
(4) The overall style and motif of the teaset.

That said, I would still not definitely say that Zee Wo and Se Wo are one and the same without further corroboration, but this is only one opinion.

Best,
David