TeaChat

I did not participate in this auction on eBay, but I certainly watched it.

Perhaps you saw it, too? It was this clay teapot with jade spout, handle, and lid knob, with metal fittings.

Clearly somebody thought it was worth paying >$700 for. What do you think?

If it wasn't fake, it would be quite a find for $720.00

Drax wrote:I did not participate in this auction on eBay, but I certainly watched it.

Perhaps you saw it, too? It was this clay teapot with jade spout, handle, and lid knob, with metal fittings.

Clearly somebody thought it was worth paying >$700 for. What do you think?

I think the workmanship on this is quite poor. The silver work is not lovely and fine and the etching looks to be done with electric tools. Notice the chipping on the edges of the lines. I see this kind of thing on modern fakes of ancient stone seals. I like the jade handle and spout, though. And, the teapot may indeed be 'old'.

too much dirt to be "real" - it does look nice, but not $700 nice. Lots of bidders with no feedback and the "winner" is "private" - not a good sign.

Of course, it could be the steal of a lifetime and soon to be sold at sotheby's for millions, but I doubt it.

TomVerlain wrote:too much dirt to be "real" - it does look nice, but not $700 nice. Lots of bidders with no feedback and the "winner" is "private" - not a good sign.

Of course, it could be the steal of a lifetime and soon to be sold at sotheby's for millions, but I doubt it.

Not a chance.

This is a fake. I've seen this type before -- the handle and spout are not jade, but a cheap plastic. The real stuff looks different.

Incidentally, I bought my pewter wrapped pot for about $150. They can be a steal if you are lucky

MarshalN wrote:This is a fake. I've seen this type before -- the handle and spout are not jade, but a cheap plastic. The real stuff looks different.

The seller seems smart enough to know the difference between plastic and stone. The phrase "green stones" in the description would seem to imply stone.

Maybe we'll see it relisted in a month or so if the buyer returns it.

I noticed that the winner's feedback was 'private' -- I've never seen that before. What/why...?

"private" ... maybe there was a reserve on this item?

Bidders can keep their rating private. This is to prevent someone from snooping on their purchases, so if you buy multi-million dollar paintings, no one except the seller will know who you are.

In reality, if you have lots of negitive feedback, or you are a shill bidder, ordinary people are prevented from learning who the bidder is and their history.

For instance, in this case, let's say the $720 is a shill bid. The seller then offers the teapot for a lower price to the second highest bidder, saying the first bidder did no complete the transaction. They do the purchase outside the ebay system, and the buyer is screwed, can't leave feedback or have paypal get their money back. Then there is no history of it happening.

The seller does have a large amount of positive feedback, so it's hard to say if there is any ill intention in the offing. Most of their other offerings are much lower priced. This did start @ $99.00, so it just might be two idiot bidders in a war.

Drax wrote:

MarshalN wrote:This is a fake. I've seen this type before -- the handle and spout are not jade, but a cheap plastic. The real stuff looks different.

The seller seems smart enough to know the difference between plastic and stone. The phrase "green stones" in the description would seem to imply stone.

Maybe we'll see it relisted in a month or so if the buyer returns it.

I noticed that the winner's feedback was 'private' -- I've never seen that before. What/why...?

The Chinese call many different kinds of stone, 'jade'. It is loosely used. All of the archaic jades you see in museums are not technically jadeite, but, nephrite and other stones. It's a minor detail.

I've come across this seller for over a year, and they always seem to have a limitless supply of "Chinese Vermilion Mud" teapots. I know quite a few were exported to Japan, but did they somehow ALL end up in this store's clutches? If if they collect them, wouldn't they know that they are called Yixing or Zisha? I don't know how they get away with their near perfect seller rating though... that's a good one.

tingjunkie wrote:I've come across this seller for over a year, and they always seem to have a limitless supply of "Chinese Vermilion Mud" teapots. I know quite a few were exported to Japan, but did they somehow ALL end up in this store's clutches? If if they collect them, wouldn't they know that they are called Yixing or Zisha? I don't know how they get away with their near perfect seller rating though... that's a good one.

They have a network of people buying at auctions all over Japan. My only quibble with them is that everything is 30 years old in their descriptions. They try to describe the items carefully, though. They have finally switched over to metric and one doesn't have to think what 2.9" means. I have never seen a measuring device with inches broken down into 10ths.

Hrm, I did mean to put "jade" in quotation marks in the title of the thread. Oh well.

I sort of wondered the same thing about the limitless supply of these 'artifacts.' Particular tsubas (those metal guard plates on katana), wall scrolls, and 18th century soba cups. But having seen the Japanese auction houses, I can understand the sort of volume of stuff that goes through there.

A lot of Japanese merchants also have a "low margin, high throughput" mentality.

Somebody was mentioning in another thread that a Japanese person has to get a certification if he or she wants to sell antiques. I'm not sure of the "rigor" of the certification (whether it's just paperwork or more than that), but it also means not everybody can do it, if I understood it correctly....

Tead Off wrote: They have a network of people buying at auctions all over Japan. My only quibble with them is that everything is 30 years old in their descriptions. They try to describe the items carefully, though. They have finally switched over to metric and one doesn't have to think what 2.9" means. I have never seen a measuring device with inches broken down into 10ths.

So you think the pots are more than just modern shoe polish jobs? I'd be shocked to find they have that deep a supply of export Yixing available from auctions. I know many Yixing were exported to Japan in the 30's, but do you know if any other eras were known to be high traffic times?

No guys.... I've seen and looked at this style of pots before. They're fake. The real ones don't look like this. Whoever bought it was an idiot.

There was a large number of pots exported to Japan -- the Japanese do, after all, drink a lot of tea.