Friday, February 20, 2009

# 23 Today's picture 090220


Chinese Blue Qing Dynasty and modern © Ingrid Booz Morejohn

4 comments:

  1. Love your photos, Ingrid. Is this from your personal collection? They're beautiful. Usually when an antique dealer says "Ming" or "Qing" to me I think it's just a sales pitch. My education in Chinese ceramics has a long way to go. One day at Songxianqiao antiques market, a friend and I saw an old crucifix and he joked, "Qing Dynasty!"

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  2. Hi Roger! Yes they are all mine, all the "old" ones bought at Songxianqiao, other newly produced ones (small sauce cups and teacups) at tea shops etc. Blue batik from Dali of course. I bought all the plates for a photo shoot, but since the earthquake they've all been put away in a cabinet, so many things came crashing to the ground that day and I haven't unpacked a lot of things after the big cleanup. I think that you are correct to assume that most things you see at so-called "antique markets" in China are newly produced. I often joke with the sellers that they are older than what they sell. My personal feeling is that if you find something that is beautiful, interesting, in good condition and speaks to you in a personal way, then by all means buy it if you can afford it. But I don't want to pay "antique" price for something that is new, but I'll gladly buy a reproduction, don't have to own an antique. Songxianqiao has many lovely pieces, mostly in the shops in the back, not by the main road where almost everything is fake. A few good Tibetan stores too with very nice pieces. Remember the Qing Dynasty ended at the beginning of 1912 so these plates don't have to be older than 96-97 years! And Christians have been active in China for several hundred years, maybe the crucifix was old ;-) The Chinese have been making fakes for longer than that though! Happy shopping!

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  3. So you share my love of Songxianqiao! I learned an important lesson from 15 years in Los Angeles, especially after the '94 earthquake - stick your breakable objects to surfaces with "Quake Hold" - a kind of putty that keeps them in place. I also once worked in an art museum, where they used a microcrystalline wax to prevent movement or breakage. Don't know if either is commercially available in Chengdu.

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  4. This is brilliant advice, maybe a new marketing idea here in Chengdu? But "blu tack" will probably do the trick. I wondered about the exhibits at the Jinsha Ruins Museum during the earthquake, they have so many hundreds of small pieces....Songxianqiao, can't go there too often or I won't be able have any money left to feed the kids!

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