SPLENDID COFFEE AND TEA SERVICE WITH DRAGON DECOR.
China; Jiujiang. Late Qing period. About 1900. Atelier: Tu Mao Xing.

Silver. Coffee and tea pot; milk jug; sugar bowl; small tray and sugar tongs. Bulbous side with serpentine dragons; in reserve monogram MT (for Minna Trautmann). The handle in form of a three-dimensional dragon. Ca. 2.987 g. Height of the coffee pot 22 cm. Marked. Condition B. Zapon-varnished.

Provenance:
- Collection Wilhelm Trautmann; acquired about 1903 in Shanghai; since then in family property.

Wilhelm Trautmann; born in 1867 in Sagnerhausen; trained to become a tailor in his hometown. As a young man he moved to Berlin; where he made design drawings for several fashion magazines besides working as a tailor in one of the first stores in the capital. Thus the Shanghai-based gentlemen's outfitters Wilk and Mielenhausen took notice of Wilhelm Trautmann. Mielenhausen was able to win the young tailor for the fashion house in Shanghai and Trautmann thus moved to China in 1896. He was quickly able to establish himself in the new company and became partner in 1902 and sole holder in 1903. The gentlemen's outfitters was so successful that he was able to employ several cutters and 50 coolies. After the war his property was confiscated and he was deported. An English man he was friends with had kept parts of his silver and furniture and sent it to Germany. At the age of 81 Trautmann dies in G鰐tingen in 1949.Art trade; Van Ham.