In its original box, this silver tea service, comprising a teapot, sugar bowl, and milk jug, was made at the Lee Ching Gold and Silver Smith located in Sai Hing Street in Guangzhou. Each vessel is finely worked in repoussé, with scholars and attendants in landscapes and, more unusually, martial scenes. Shield-shaped cartouches are engraved with the initials IH, for the name of the owner.Chinese silversmiths began to produce large amounts of silver for the Western market at the end of the eighteenth century. Near the end of the Opium War in 1842, the expansion of foreign trading rights in China led to a boom in silver crafts.
