CHINA GOOD LUCK SPOONS
The Chinese have a lot of symbols for good luck, making money, living a
long life, health success and aversion to evil ghosts or spirits.
Most of these spoons are inexpensive souvenirs of tourist visits to
Hong Kong, Taiwan (Formosa), Singapore or other Chinese cities.
These are very nicely made spoons with an unusual shaped bowl. The
basic spoon is the same, but the the handworkmanship is different.
These spoons are marked "free China" with no purity mark. I am pretty
sure they are close to sterling grade silver.
The term "free China" is used in several different contexts, but in
this case I am assuming they are talking about the Republic of Taiwan
sometime after
WW11.
detail photo of the incredible hand workmanship on this souvenir
Most of the old Chinese coins have four characters. It is possible to
date and determine coin value.
The coins on these spoons are simulated. They were made for tourists.
The inscriptions are usually for good fortune, success in business etc.
only marked "silver" probably a low grade of silver
A variety of good luck, good fortune, long life spoons. Bamboo stems
are very popular design motifs.
Most of these spoons are silver, but silver plated ones are also
available
Nice cut out stork with pine trees
The stork was believed to live for a thousand years and was often
paired with pine trees which are also a symbol of longevity.
mark is in Chinese characters
I am not familiar with Chinese characters so if anyone wishes to add
comments, please
contact me.
Another peculiarity of some of the Chinese dialects is that there
are a very large number of written characters, but fewer spoken sounds.
Therefore homonyms are often used as puns.
More good luck gemstone spoons can be seen
at the oriental gemstone exhibit
Return to spoon planet exhibits index