Hmm... fake or not fake?

[kiwi303]

Just won a bid on an auction site a few minutes ago and am now the owner of a pot and 6 cups and saucers.


The interesting thing is the stamp on the base I am waiting for it to arrive to have a look under the lid to see if there is a matching stamp

Optical illusion, the stamp looks different unrotated, it's not really sticking OUT of the surface like it looks now.

366523122b.jpg (25.6 KiB) Viewed 1259 times

The original photo of the stamp shows it is stamped into the pot, on rotating and resizing to fit under teachats size limits it now looks like it is UP from the surface, but you can read the characters


99.9% chance it's a fake...


but that 0.1 percent chance it's real? it would be a real sweet thing to have.



Even if it's fake, it'll still make tea.

If it's real, A Zhou GuiZhen pot by one of the 11 living Grand Masters of YiXing pottery? COOL!

[futurebird]

What do you mean by "fake" ....

Not really made by who it was claimed to be made by?

Not really as old as it was claimed to be?

Not made of high quality yixing clay?

Not made of yixing clay at all?

Not made in Yixing China?

Not really a teapot?

[kiwi303]

I would go with

"Not really made by whom it is claimed to be made by"

and maybe related

"Not made of high quality Yixing clay"



There's no market in faking stuff made by no-name nobodies. But faking and selling work by well known names is big bucks.

Look at how many "Chanel" and "Gucci" bags have never seen the inside of a Chanel or Gucci factory.


In this case, who would bother to fake Joe Bloggs, when they can fake a grand master whose work goes for thousands?



The provenance is unknown, Just off an auction of a guy who listed it as "Tea set, Chinese" and in one answer to a question on the auction doesn't even know if it is Yixing clay. When he contacts me to arrange shipping I'll pump him for more detail of where and how he got it.

But as I said, 99.9% it's fake, as in not really the work of Zhou Guizhen, the odds of a grandmasters work showing up in NZ on an equivalent to ebay going cheap is like an antique dealers dream of finding a genuine Chippendale chair set in a hospice op-shop.



But even fake teapots still make tea, even if the makers stamp lies.

[AT333]

The clay looks like from the 90s period but please don't take my guess as genuine

[MarshalN]

Of course it's fake, don't be silly.

[chrl42]

(fake)