Chinese Silver Turquoise Bracelet

The form of this extra wide (4.4cm) Chinese silver bangle shows the influence of the Western market on the 19th century Chinese silversmith. Large decorated silver bangles became popular in Europe in the mid 19th century.

[click on images to enlarge .... photos by: RidgewoodEntrust]

What intrigues me about this bracelet is that the construction appears western while the decoration is Chinese...carved turquoise cabochons on one side and a dreamlike, almost surreal scene of Chinese symbols on the other: immortals floating in the air on leaves that spill out of a gigantic vase...with a huge dragonfly hovering to one side.



The construction; the tongue clasp, the two panel hollow construction with the flat edge, the hinge...none of these appear in 18th or early 19th century Chinese bracelets. But these details do appear in British and European bangles c. 1850.

In 1844 Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of many Western merchants who traveled to China and brought back large orders of silver...so there must have been a cross pollination of ideas.

I have owned this bracelet for a long time...and I continually put off writing about it...thinking I will be able to describe the compelling dreamlike scene ...perhaps that is why we have a PhotoBlog...hopefully these pictures are worth a 1000 words?

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos.