If you dropped into a European drawing room two centuries ago, the must-have luxuries were just as likely to have arrived by ship from Canton as to have been made in Paris or London: intricately painted export fans, vivid Canton enamels, gilded porcelain, finely worked silver, ingenious game boxes, and pith paintings bustling with scenes of Chinese street life.
More than fashionable curios, these objects emerged from a very specific place in the Qing dynasty world of trade: the Thirteen Factories in Canton, the sole legal outpost for direct commerce between China and the West under the empire’s single-port policy, where local workshops learned to tailor Chinese craftsmanship to foreign tastes.
This April, Hong Kong dealer Ying’s Gallery, known for its exceptional export art, is bringing a curated selection of that legacy to Salon on Hollywood at the Liang Yi Museum on historic Hollywood Road, on view from 24 to 28 April. In a deliberately intimate, salon-style setting, visitors can browse museum-quality works with a glass of wine in hand and speak directly with the dealers.
Black silky folding fan with gold painted black lacquer sticks | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
A set of canton bronze enamel shell-shaped basin and nautilus shell-shaped ewer | Qing dynasty, 18th century | Ying's Gallery
Red lacquer export games table | Qing dynasty, Jiaqing / Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Western merchant ships that braved the long run to the Pearl River ended their voyage at Canton (present-day Guangzhou), the Qing empire’s only port legally open to foreign trade. On shore, ritual opera and banquets of beef and wine marked their arrival before they were confined to the factories district – a small walled zone of trading compounds just outside the city, known to the world as the Thirteen Factories.
Despite the name, the Thirteen Factories weren't workshops but a shorthand for the officially licensed Chinese hong merchants, the only firms permitted to deal directly with foreigners. They guaranteed contracts, managed taxes and accounts, and controlled exports of tea, silk, and porcelain. So much silver passed through their hands that the hong system was nicknamed the “Emperor’s southern treasury.”
Sometimes described as the “London of the East,” the factories district was at once a logistics hub, shopping paradise, and cultural crucible where techniques and tastes met and shifted. Merchants ordered in bulk through the hongs, while visitors picked up souvenirs in the lanes around the compounds. For most Europeans, this narrow strip of riverfront – and the goods that moved through it – defined their idea of China: Canton enamels, silver, lacquerware, and furniture decorated with pavilions, gardens, and other exotic landscapes for European courts and salons.
Its near‑century monopoly ended in the mid‑19th century, when the treaty ports opened and foreign trade spread to other coastal cities, closing a distinctive chapter in the history of Sino‑Western exchange.
Fan
Paper folding fan with open work enamelled silver filigree sticks | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
In Europe, hand fans had been part of women’s dress since the Middle Ages. Beyond decoration, they were tools of etiquette, used in churches, salons, and theatres. By the 18th and 19th centuries they even carried a playful “fan language,” where a tilt, flutter, or half‑opened leaf could signal interest, refusal, or reserve without a word.
Canton export fans arrived perfectly suited to this culture, but with a different kind of impact. Made with specialised labour and shipped halfway around the world, they were bought as luxury accessories – fashionable “Chinese” objects that signalled taste and status.
Canton workshops combined sandalwood, ivory, tortoiseshell, and mother‑of‑pearl, using openwork carving, silver filigree, and partial gilding to create highly worked pieces. Many were painted on both sides: one showing traditional Chinese pavilions and gardens, the other scenes of maritime trade – Canton’s foreign factories, ships at anchor, or Hong Kong’s early colonial shoreline.
Alongside these elaborate pieces, simpler sandalwood fans found a steady market. Often made from Hawaiian wood shipped in by American merchants, they were thin, light, and finely pierced. In European reception rooms and theatre boxes, the faint scent of sandalwood released with each flick was very much part of their appeal.
Black silky folding fan with gold painted black lacquer sticks | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Sandalwood sticks cockade fan with design of floral and perforated geometric pattern | Qing dynasty, 18th century | Ying's Gallery
Canton Enamel
Canton bronze enamel blue ground with flower pattern bowl warmer | Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | Ying's Gallery
Enamelling arrived in China from Europe in the late 17th century. In Canton, the main port for foreign trade, workshops quickly picked up the technique and adapted it to local taste, producing what became known as Canton enamel – typically light in construction, with rich, saturated colours.
At the same time, enamelling was taking root at court. The Kangxi emperor set up an enamel workshop in the imperial ateliers in Beijing, and Guangzhou craftsmen, regarded as among the most skilled, were repeatedly summoned north to work on imperial commissions.
When the single‑port trade system gave Canton exclusive foreign trading privileges, Canton enamelware quickly became an export business. Workshops produced teapots, coffee sets, and tableware in shapes borrowed from European silver and ceramics, feeding a growing European appetite for tea, coffee, and chocolate. In upper‑class homes, these pieces often sat on the table alongside Chinese export porcelain.
Over time, painting styles shifted under Western influence. Early Canton enamels favour flat colour with minimal shading; later works use finer stippling, highlights, and shadows to build a stronger sense of depth, while still keeping recognisably Chinese decorative themes.
Canton bronze enamel hotpot with floral pattern | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Canton bronze enamel blue ground warming bowl with floral and the bajixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems) pattern | Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | Ying's Gallery
Canton Famille Rose Porcelain
Two sets of Chinese export famille rose armorial cups and saucers for the English market | Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | Ying's Gallery
Now listed on China’s National Intangible Cultural Heritage register, Canton famille rose porcelain combined enamel painting, wucai (“five colours”), and fencai (“soft colours”) to create wares that are densely patterned and intensely bright.
Artisans began with plain white bodies, sketching the main design before adding gilt lines that crisscross the surface like threads in patterned silk – earning these pieces the nickname "woven-gold porcelain."
From the 18th century onwards, Canton famille rose was shipped overseas in large quantities, often made to order from drawings supplied by foreign merchants. Under European Rococo influence, painters incorporated Western images into traditional Chinese vessel shapes, favouring complex layouts, curling lines, and saturated colour.
To keep up with demand, production was divided between two centres. Jingdezhen, China’s “Porcelain Capital,” supplied high‑quality white bodies, which were then sent to Canton for over‑painting and low‑temperature firing. Workshops reused standard decorative schemes across different forms and relied on printed outlines and pattern blocks to keep designs consistent at scale.
Silver
Silver basket with enamelled decoration | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Shiploads of foreign silver coins poured into Canton with the tea‑and‑silk trade. Around the Thirteen Factories, silversmiths melted those coins and recast them into teapots, boxes, and tableware for European homes, offering fashionable silver at lower prices than European‑made pieces.
Much of this export silver was designed to look familiarly “Western.” Forms and patterns followed merchants’ samples and drawings, and early makers even stamped pseudo‑British purity and town marks on the base to meet European expectations. By the mid‑19th century, those marks were increasingly replaced by Latin initials, Chinese characters, or a mix of both.
As the trade grew, Canton silver developed a hybrid look: Western shapes wrapped in Chinese surface decoration. Using repoussé and piercing, makers packed the metal with raised motifs and vignettes – auspicious flowers, mythic beasts, and storytelling figures – drawn from local visual culture.
Workshops also tailored pieces to specific European habits. Filigree baskets – often silk‑lined in Europe and used to hold gloves – were made from hair‑thin wire twisted and soldered by hand, light in appearance but heavy in labour. Finger bowls, set out at the end of formal meals for rinsing hands, might pair a pierced silver shell with a coloured glass liner so the pattern stood out on the table.
Gilt silver filigree basket and cover | Qing dynasty, Jiaqing / Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Silver bowl with repoussé and pierced decoration and red glass lining, finger bowl | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Lacquer
Lacquer painted octagonal box | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
By the 18th century, Canton workshops had turned lacquer into one of their most successful exports. They translated prevailing European Rococo taste – scrolling curves and dense ornament – into Chinese‑made furniture and objects, often finished in black lacquer with bright gold designs.
Lacquer was made across China, but Canton emerged as a major centre for painted‑and‑gilt pieces aimed at foreign markets. Natural lacquer seals out air and moisture, protecting objects from damp and insects in a ship’s hold, which made it ideal for export. Canton lacquerware travelled to Europe by sea routes and was also valued at home by elite patrons, including the Qing court.
The technique was labour‑intensive. Artisans built up many thin coats of lacquer over a wooden core, sanding each one smooth before outlining motifs in semi‑transparent lacquer. As the surface neared drying, they dabbed on fine gold or silver powder and rubbed it in until the design caught the light.
Foreign buyers could pick from ready‑made pieces shown by hong merchants or commission custom work from their own drawings. Workshops also reworked traditional forms for Western use, producing everything from folding screens and cabinets to tea tables, writing desks, and jewellery boxes.
Black lacquer box with cutlery set | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Game Box
A rare black lacquer with gilt painted lobed shaped games box | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Game boxes are another Canton specialty that fuses Chinese craftsmanship with European leisure. At first glance they resemble ordinary lacquer cases, but opening one reveals stacks of fitted trays, each sized for particular chips or cards.
Many sets include mother‑of‑pearl counters and finely painted decks – sometimes with Chinese landscapes or flowers and birds, sometimes with Western playing‑card imagery such as kings, queens, suits, and pips. Buyers could choose ready‑made sets, while wealthier clients commissioned bespoke versions with family crests on the box and matching pieces.
The nested structure kept everything protected and packed tight for travel. Canton workshops also produced folding versions that closed as compact carry cases and opened out into full gaming boards for play in a ship's cabin or rented room.
Black lacquer with gilt painted counter box | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Tea Caddy
Red lacquer and gold painted butterfly shaped tea caddy | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
When tea first reached Europe it was a costly rarity, sold through apothecaries and promoted for its health benefits. By the later 17th century it had become a fashionable drink among elites, and over time it spread from courtly ritual to daily habit.
Tea left China packed in plain wooden chests, but in Europe its value could multiply many times over – hence the idea of tea as “liquid gold.” The finest grades, destined for noble households, demanded careful handling and equally polished presentation.
That demand reshaped the tea caddy. Simple storage boxes meant to keep out damp were upgraded with black lacquer and gilt decoration, turning a practical container into a display object. Buyers could commission personalised details – names or coats of arms – so the caddy doubled as a gift and a marker of status.
Because tea was valuable and easy to steal, many caddies were fitted with locks, and women in affluent households often kept the keys on them to stop servants helping themselves. Inside, tin-lined compartments helped preserve aroma by sealing out moisture and pests. On the outside, some caddies even showed the tea trade itself – from production and transport to sale – making the container a miniature story about the commodity it protected.
Red lacquer pumpkin shaped tea caddy | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Black lacquer with gilt painted tea production tea caddy | Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | Ying's Gallery
Furniture
Black lacquer inlaid porcelain plaque round folding table | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
In 18th‑century Britain, one of Chippendale’s best‑known details – the ball‑and‑claw foot – is often said to draw on a Chinese motif of a dragon chasing a pearl, first adapted in English silver and then carved in wood as a lion’s paw or bird’s talon.
Back in China, Canton was becoming a major hub for export furniture as European demand for “Eastern” style grew. Workshops used dense, dark hardwoods to produce writing desks, chests of drawers, and tea tables made to suit European rooms and habits.
By the late Qing period, export furniture could be ordered with surprising precision. Large Canton shops issued illustrated catalogues – essentially showrooms on paper – offering more than 600 designs, with drawer layouts, table heights, and even chair‑back curves tailored to Western use.
In European great houses these pieces signalled money and global reach, while in China they were rarer, appearing mainly in the homes of merchants most closely tied to foreign trade.
A pair of Chinese canton embroideries | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
A large Chinese inlaid and embroidered silk screen | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Painting
A set of twelve "porcelain production" pith paper paintings | circa 1850 | Ying's Galler
Canton export painting offered almost anything a traveller might want to carry home: people and costumes, trades and street life, buildings, landscapes, and harbour views. Before photography, these watercolour and gouache images worked like portable "snapshots," satisfying European curiosity about daily Chinese life.
Subjects that showed how China “worked” were especially popular – commodity production, craftsmen at their tools, street vendors, and small services. Often sold as matched sets, these pictures borrowed the tidy, repeatable format of European print albums while filling them with distinctly local scenes.
To fill large orders, Canton studios organised production in stages. Artisans transferred the design outline by woodblock printing or ink rubbing, then colourists applied the pigments, maintaining a consistent house style while speeding output.
The most distinctive medium was pith paper – thin slices cut from a plant stem and prized for its bright, velvety surface. Paint sits differently on pith, making colours appear especially clear with a faintly raised texture. Light, inexpensive, and easy to transport, pith paintings became favorite souvenirs.
Chinese School | View of a textile shop | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Chinese School | View of a grocery shop | Qing dynasty, 19th century | Ying's Gallery
Tucked among the antique shops and galleries of Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road, Salon on Hollywood (formerly the Hollywood Road Antique and Art Fair) returns for its third edition, as one of the city's best-known neighbourhoods continues to shift from a traditional antiques hub into a more eclectic creative corridor.
Founded by third-generation Chinese furniture specialist Bonnie Lau and co-curated by former Sotheby’s Chinese art specialist Vivian Tong, Salon on Hollywood embraces the spirit of a salon, prioritising intimate encounters, thoughtful dialogue, and the simple pleasure of experiencing art with a glass of wine in hand.
This year’s lineup brings together seasoned dealers from the UK, France, Argentina, Japan, and Hong Kong, presenting museum-quality antiquities, Asian and European decorative arts, and contemporary works. Exhibitors include Susan Ollemans (London), MD Flacks (London), Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo), Yumekoubou (Kyoto/Paris), Alhambra Antiques (Buenos Aires), Teresa Coleman Fine Arts, Hon Ming Gallery, Empyrean, Ever Arts Gallery, Ying's Gallery, Tinny Art House, and more.
Beyond the Transactions: Salon on Hollywood redefines the Art Fair as an intimate space for Dialogue
Date: 24 - 28 April 2026 (Fri to Tue)
Time: 11 am - 6 pm
Venue: Liang Yi Museum
Address: 181-199 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong