Chinese Export Silver Tea Service, 8 pieces including tray. Includes kettle on bamboo style stand, coffee pot, teapot, cream pitcher, and open sugar bowl, all featuring raised designs of birds among prunus branches, plus a waste bowl and tea caddy with raised prunus branch design (lacking birds), together with a hardwood tray with silver mounts at the four corners, all decorated with prunus branches, and silver bamboo form handles. Each piece hallmarked with WH plus Chinese character mark and “90” for .900 fineness except for the tea caddy, which is marked WH and 90 but has no character mark, and the kettle stand and burner which are unmarked (but test .900). Tea caddy has an Aesthetic movement style monogram. No other pieces are monogrammed. Creamer and sugar have gilt washed interiors. Tray – 28 1/2″ x 20 1/2″. Coffee pot height: 8 1/2″. Combined silver weight: 110.19 troy ounces. Note: The firm of Wang Hing was established in Canton China in 1854 by the prominent Lo merchant family. It sold upscale wares until the 1940s, when the Japanese invasion forced it to close.

PROVENANCE: Original owner was Captain Waldo Evans, US Navy, commanding officer of the USS New Orleans and the USS St. Louis during World War I and Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands from 1927-1931. Descended in his family to present consignor.

CONDITION: A few minor dents and scratches. Some tiny screws/pins are missing, a few others have been replaced, including on Kettle handle. Epoxy repair to break of one horizontal rail of kettle stand (at joint of rail and leg). Coffee pot finial is loose but attached. Wooden tray has some surface fading and shrinkage separations at corners, mounts remain stable despite several missing tiny pins/screws.