A Gold Plated Silver Tongue Scraper
- Tongue scrapers were kind of daily instrument used especially by the
rich people in Ching dynasty for cleaning their tongues. With a view not to
generate any chemical reaction that might poison the users, most of the
tongue scrapers were made of precious metals, such as gold and silver.
- The shown tongue scraper could be an excavation which had been buried for
a long time, for some rusts are tightly affixed on its body. Material inside
of the tongue scraper is silver, but a layer of gold was also coated on the
surface, that makes us difficulty in discovering its being of gold plated
silver, provided that some of the coatings had not been worn out.
- The tongue scraper was shaped as a lucky symbol called Zu Yi, its front
end decorates with a peony, the flower of nobility and wealth, and at the
rear end, we may find a feature of bat, whose name pronounced in Mandarin as
Fu (Luck), and also a Character of Shou
(Longevity). It is
quite evidently that the rich owner of this delicate piece, intended to
gather all those good things with him or her by way of using it.
- At the reverse stamp Hsiang Ho Heng Ji was chopped, which should be
the goldsmith or sliversmith's name and remark. It seems a common practice
in the past, even in the current Chinese society, for making artworks as
long as they are deemed valuable.
A Silver Sycee
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Good-Luck Silver Lockers
