A Chinese silver cup with applied dragon wrapping around. This beautifully executed cocktail cup is hand wrought with the dragon made and formed from a separate piece of silver, and then solder applied to the cup seamlessly. It is a very well executed study of a dragon. There is super hand worked scale detailing through the body, and the face has a real menace to it as it chases its tail.
The use of the dragon is, among many things, the symbol of Imperial power and of the son of heaven. For the Chinese, the dragon is an auspicious creature symbolising strength, wisdom, good luck and power of the elements of wind and water. As such, Chinese people proudly claim they are descendants of the dragon. China’s feudal rulers did everything they possibly could to maintain this descendancy, surrounding themselves with dragon-related ornamentation, ruling from a dragon throne and even waging war under a dragon flag. The emperor’s robes “龙袍” [lóngpáo] were embroidered with curling dragons. While Western dragons are firmly rooted to the earth, Chinese dragons are indisputably rulers of the sky.
This piece, being a cocktail cup, beautifully ties in the effect that the West was having on Chinese culture during the "Jazz Age". This is very much a Western piece, but decorated in such a way that all the beauty, tradition and heritage of Chinese culture is pinned to it. As China benefitted from a domestic boom which saw a number of wealthy citizens embark on trips to Paris, London, New York and other booming cities, the desire to bring the finer trappings found abroad to China also helped spur a growth in consumption domestically, not just for export.
The base of the cup has two Chinese symbol marks, and the name 'Sincere' stamped in between. The Sincere mark refers to this piece's origins being from the large and very prestigious Sincere department store. It was the very first of its kind. Started by a Cantonese businessman, Ma Ying Piu, who returned from learning from successful department stores in Australia to open his own on Hong Kong, in 1900. Hong Kong was used as a stepping stone to then open stores in mainland China, which Sincere was to do in 1917 on the Nanking road, the Shanghai equivalent of 5th Avenue in New York. Silver became a large part of the offering from the store, and it varied from relatively basic domestic items to more elaborate and skilled works of silversmithing. They had their own workshop, and employed skilled Chinese artisans to create these pieces for the store. Unlike the later entrants into the 'big four' Chinese department stores, like The Sun Company who would either import from abroad, or buy domestically. The Sincere business is still in business today, and even in Ma family hands.
