overpriced or fake?

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Rick

I have seen this kind of Bidder panic before on the 'Bay .

Inexperience, item lust, L.O.K. (lack of knowledge) are some of the reasons .




Then comes 'Buyer's Remorse' .
Who hasn't been there .

Well, yeah, but I would not have bid on this piece in my wildest testosterone-induced bidding state, anyhow. For what it is claimed to be it was very cheap. For what I suspect it really is, it was far, far too much!

[Rick]

"There but for fortune."
(and knowledge)

Eh ?

[asomotif]

Absentee bids at auctions are a matter of trust.

A respectable auction house is not suposed to use imaginairy floor bidders.

Personally I would not be happy to be floor bidder and have some anonimous ebay bidder bring me to higher prices.
Unless of course the auction would not be anonimous and you would be able to check all biiders.

As for chinese items, I like the food. That must be about the only chinese thing where "what you see, is what you get" .

[josh stout]

Originally Posted by Bill Marsh

Well, yeah, but I would not have bid on this piece in my wildest testosterone-induced bidding state, anyhow. For what it is claimed to be it was very cheap. For what I suspect it really is, it was far, far too much!

But this is what I am wondering. I think there is a good consensus that this one was made very recently, but I think "genuine" ones were made in the early 20th c. to brighten up a wall. They seem to be based on 18th c. Taoist ritual swords, often including markings characteristic of the Qianlong era, however, rather than incised designs and characters with metal inlays/koftgari they seem to have very thin designs, that almost seem painted on, or done in very crude koftgari.

I have talked to a few collectors in China and America about this, and there seems to be debate whether some are genuinely 18th c. with some early 20th c. copies and many fakes, if there are a few high quality 18th c. pieces and many fakes, or if there were a large number of early 20th c. wall hangers made that are now being copied.
Josh