A CHINESE EXPORT SILVER VASE. Canton, Qing dynasty, circa 1880, retailed by Gun Wo. Naturalistically modelled with two nodular sections of bamboo branch on an oval base, with attendant buds and leafy branches, cut sheet work and applied, and a cicada clambering over the rim with wirework legs, marked underneath with retailer’s mark GW, numeral 90 and artisan mark YU YAO HE 余耀和, 19.1cm H, 359g. Provenance: an important South African private collection, acquired between the 1960s and 1980s, thence by descent to the present owner. 清约1900年代 银竹节草虫花插 来源：得于1960至80年代南非重要私人收藏，后传承至今。 For a piece of similar form within the Chinese Imperial collection, but in carved ivory, see Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings in the Collection of the Palace Museum, 2002, p.230.