It's certainly in the style of Guangxu wares, but this does not look good to me,..

the dragon has stary eyes and the body of the dragon looks deformed or inelegant . Its claws look over-sized. You would expect better work in a republican piece.

Also , the base of the upper bowl looks very fresh and new. 

Thank You Tam 🙂 I really appreciate your insights. Please forgive me for posting some of these items which are highly dubious sometimes but the greater the risk the greater the reward for the right person. also with Uk sellers you have a much higher chance of getting a genuine item, as the average random British sellers is always very honest and genuine. I recall Peter saying 95% of items on ebay are fake but with UK sellers i honestly find 85-90% are genuine.

🙂 This item looked like something a collector of republican might like. If i was a collector and that was a real republican i would be crazy for it. You could stick a bamboo plant in it 🙂 My post is aimed for the collector of republican era porcelain and they would know best if it is real or not. 

Truthfully I had little or no interest in buying it, I seem to chase Kuntani, Satusma, Nippon and gravitate towards Japanese. Not sure why i prefer Japanese over Chinese. 

I think with Chinese they gradually got worse in quality and with Japanese they gradually got better in Quality. 

However i do like 17th and 18th century Chinese and i begun my new adventure into buying early 20th century /Republican rice bowls. I think i am going to corner this niche in the market. As they have yet to be faked or copied and are easy to identify. Also they can be snapped up in job lots for a few pounds. 

This is an amazing guide on the rice bowls,

https://watersilkdragon.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/deconstructing-the-rice-grain-pattern-late-qing-to-prc/

I think Peter monitors equally the UK ebay site and his 90% figure for fakes and copies among Chinese antiques is accurate. The only difference is that there are probably many more real Chinese export items in the UK, often with some damage , which don't always appear on his newsletter . Maybe sometimes genuine buy it now items slip through without featuring in the newsletter, but  you can reasonably assume most things are fake, and if it's not in the newsletter , it's probably not worth considering. 

You are much safer with Japanese stuff , which has not been copied. In general , every type of Chinese antique has been faked, including the rice-decorated bowls , and the original old ones of this type are just as hard to identify as anything else. Chinese supermarkets in England sell modern sets of these bowls . 

I suggest you only buy what you like , and give up the idea that there is an investment opportunity that others have missed (in the Chinese market) . Peter says that Japanese porcelain and arts have decreased in price over the last 20 years or so, and that may be a good opportunity to buy things now , but for long term investment , not to sell on quickly .

Your right and maybe that is why I am buying Japanese. 

I got these Meiji tea cup and saucer, and this Kutani tea pot, The tea pot is the higher quality 'Kutani Sei'  and it is certainly a high quality version of the Geisha by the lake or Geisha by the river but not that style. 1900's maybe 1910

Now I did not get these from an average seller, it was from one of the bidamount recommended seller's but hey despiote this seller, selling all his Chinese, I literally stole these from him for £4.99. Lol 🙂 

Oh Man!  I even tried to get reduced postage, and this did not go down well.   ha! ha! 

He honored the sale and sent them. So yeah People just pass right over Japanese ware, and since there are so many lesser quality Kutani,  it is worth it to try get the Kuntani Sei and No and so forth, but with Satsuma people will pay alot more attention to Satsuma vase's.  

There was a lovely Kutani Tsukuru bowl  and this was the genuine antique,I lost it to another bidder but there was the only 2 of us bidding on it. 

Here are the picture's.

I am thinking maybe Japanese Meiji is the next Chinese Republican 🙂 

Dear Tam,

Many of us small sellers do not appear in the newsletter.

Our items are genuine but do not get the watchers to make a 99p auction worthwhile,

To dismiss small sellers for not appearing among Bidamount items is a wrong approach.

Equally,the larger sellers can list any old rubbish under the 'Republic period'  sobriquet and garner instant bids,sometimes within 20 minutes of listing.

To follow the herd is simply more a reflection in bidders lack of knowledge rather than the genuineness or otherwise of sellers that do not appear in Bidamount lists.

Vic

I agree with Vic. The best deals I made on Ebay were with small sellers, especially people who make household clearances. Bidamount is a good thing and I can‘t praise Peter high enough for it, but as there are many people watching and bidding, items often get  too expensive for me. 

Shine, 

It is the opposite for me. I pay equal amount for all sellers. 

The sellers on bidamount recommended list, do actually have very beautiful items. The seller I got this from was robinpupleart and all his stuff is beautiful. Same with egmont_hoorn and baby dragon and it'sabeautfiuldaytoday and somereallygoodstuff, Aurthur Potts etc etc. 

Perhaps I am not the best advocate..because all I do is snipe their items because I can judge the prices based on what they are selling. 

I got this from egmont_hoorn for £22 free postage. The second # 1 sold for £232

Antique 18/19C Chinese Qing Interior Wallpaper Painting Panel Of Bird & Peony #2

Antique 18/19C Chinese Qing Interior Wallpaper Painting Panel Of Bird & Flower

Hi Shinigami and Short Dong and others,

Good post Shin regarding small sellers and clearance sales etc. I have in the past bought some very nice pieces from said sales at well below market value. I keep said sellers on my watch list in case they come up with something of interest etc.

Short Dong I agree with your sentiment on japanese ware. If you buy good-to-high quality only (not damaged etc) it will be a good return for you in the coming years as the market although depressed with respect to japanese wares etc has started to pick-up over the last year. ? 

Mark

Hi Vic 

sorry , my advice to short dong was directed at novice buyers- bidamount is a great starting point , but I accept it likely pushes up the prices a little if an item appears there. I agree the 'republic' tag is becoming a catch all for anything clearly not antique, and has probably deceived many buyers.

Some small traders have been selling on ebay for years with genuine items , and for whatever reason their items don't get picked out by Peter's team , and some people sell the odd Chinese thing , often buy it now or in auction with a five or three day listing , which fly under the radar. Those are the real bargains , but they're much harder for new buyers to find and identify. 

The advice Short dong has received before and here again , and doesn't seem to follow, is buy the best you can afford , Chinese or Japanese, and avoid damaged, poor quality stuff. Buy few things rather than many things, and go with a seller you trust. After all , although everyone makes mistakes, the items in Peter's catalogue  are invariably genuine , so you are getting an expert appraisal .

Hunting for yourself is more fun , but not when you make mistakes or get mis-led by sellers - there are lots of UK fraudsters on ebay! the brits are no more trustworthy than anyone else (it does not need to be said ). So , short-dong's statement that 75% of Chinese stuff on ebay uk is ok , rang alarm bells. 

I started buying Chinese antiques on ebay over 10 years ago and followed Short dong's strategy of buying anything I though was a good bargain - like shelling peas , right, - but of course it did not end well .

Hi Shine,

What is your seller handle on ebay please, so i can add you to my sellers list.

Best Regards

ShortDong

Dear Tam,

I agree with each of your words. In particular, I have not said this before to Short Dong because I am afraid of appearing too much critical, but I am sure that if he will continue with his current buying policy he will have a BIG problem as he will increase his level of knowledge.

Be sure dear Short Dong that one day you will end up with your garage full of things that you do not want to have into your home, and there will be no way to dismiss them because the intrinsic value is too low. Buy less but buy better.

Note that by buying better I am not meaning, for example, buy only perfect pieces. I for example am not so fanatic about conditions. First at all comes quality and rarity. As scarcity increases, condition is not so much mandatory. It is already going that way, the Chinese are today buying things that they would not buy a few years ago.

It seems that you are more attracted by free shipping than quality. Just a suggestion, if I may do so.

And it is not true that Brits are more reliable in general. There it is exactly as is in other places.

Giovanni

Dear Short Dong,

I may be wrong because I am not expert on paintings and because the pictures are small, but I think that there is a huge difference in quality between the 22 pounds one and the 232 pounds one.

Giovanni

Hi Giovanni 

Yes,  there is a difference in quality. Of that there is no doubt. The second one is very beautiful, and the one i have the is the ugly toad that no one wanted. That does not make much of a difference though, it is still what it is and to be honest looks great on my wall 🙂 

It just need a princess to kiss it and make it a beautiful again.