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Hello all,
I recently acquired two very neat antique sets of ink stone cakes, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me identify their age. I'm an ebay seller, and will likely post them at some point but would like to have the correct information as I see some sell for 40 bucks and others sell into the thousands. Can anyone translate what the covers say? The backs of each ink cake has writing on it, but I couldn't show them all in the pictures. Also, there's Chinese characters on the sides of each cake, what could that be? I'm thinking one might be older than the other but what do you all think? Thank you all very much.
Just for some clarity with the pictures, the black cover has the black cakes, and the blue cover has the multi-colored cakes.
Eric
closeups of covers and stamp seal of blue one
Eric,
These are fairly specialized and it would help if you could contact a native speaker of Chinese to translate what is written. What I will tell you with my limited Chinese ability (not being a native speaker) is as follows:
The blue box is titled something as "Guan Yin Eight Great Ink Stones" and the sides of the red, green, and yellow stones read "Da Ming (Great Ming) Made by Cheng chih-fang. One side of each stone contains sayings related to Guan Yin and the other images of Guan Yin.
The black box is titled something as "Eight Precious and Rare Ink Stones" and the fronts of most of the black ink stones read "Made by Hsiang yin-cho." Mr. Hsiang may be famous or have a connection with this type of work.
No other dates seem to be on the boxes or stones, but you might estimate the date based on the style and condition of the custom made boxes and their condition. Only an expert is going to be able to accurately date these. Hope this helps.
George
Hello George,
I am so grateful for your help and response, that is incredibly helpful. Thank you so very much. I will continue to research and seek out more information, but having the names of the makers is exactly what I was hoping for. Very interesting sets... I haven't come across too many of these in my travels so its a new world to me. Thanks again!
Upon doing more research I came across the exact same set of 8, in the same shapes and with the same writing I believe, coming up for sale at Christies next week. The estimate they gave was 5k to 7k... I'm guessing it is way too good to be true that mine could be worth that... does anyone know if these same ink cakes were copied for many years? The only difference is the name, or maker, on the side of the cakes. I unfortunately couldn't find any information on the two names you provided for me George. I appreciate all inputs, thank you.
Eric,
I looked at the brocade box on the Christie's site and the writing on the ink stones has the same names on their fronts as your black box, only the title on the box front only has four characters while your box front has six characters (same meaning however). The stones in your black box only has a name on the front of the ink stones, not on the sides. The romanized name could be different according to the system used, for instance the surname Hsiang (Wade-Giles) system is spelled Xiang in modern (Pin-Yin) system. I notice Christies does not really go into translating the names or further details and only has four photos. It is possible that such a famous set was duplicated for collectors and for sale at a museum shop during the 20th century which may be what you have there. Your only other option may be contacting an expert at Christies or another auction house directly if you can't find any further info. Good luck.
George
Very, very interesting. Thank you for pointing out the differences and comparing both George, I truly appreciate it. The names on them are intriguing, although I'm seeing a lot of different names on other cakes. I messaged Christies to see if someone can help, but I've had terrible luck getting in touch with people over there in the past, so maybe I'll hear back from them in a few weeks. Until then I will keep learning!
Oh, George, at first I didn't realize the names were on the front of the ink cakes in the black box, and I never sent you a picture of the sides of these black cakes... Now I'm curious what they read, if that is something you can basically translate? Thanks
Dear Eric,
sorry to say that your is a fake set of inksticks.
If you access at Christie’s auction, you can compare the big difference of the lining of box of that set with that of your set. Your one is recently stretched and glued and artificially stained.
Look at the paper sticker, it is artificially stained but not old, the cut is sharp.
Look also at the ink sticks, you can see that they are dirty in the recessed areas and worn on the raised figures, simulating long handling, but the edges are sharp. And the multicolor too, the Christie’s ones are all black ink.
If the artificial staining on the tissue of the box were natural, the paper of the sticker should had gone since long.
Regards,
Giovanni
Eric,
Sorry, can't read characters. They seem to read from top to bottom "Location, City, Maker's name"
George
Thanks for the input Clayandbrush... that is exactly why I brought them here to figure out if they were legit or not, and figure out the actual age. You definitely pointed out some things that made me take another look, thanks. They may very well be fakes but I also see a lot that are sold as early 20th century, so it's possible they are just homage copies. Have you seen other fakes? I'm seeing quite a few that have the same style box sell upwards 100 to 900, so they must have some age.
Dear Eric,
may be I am not using the proper words. I say fake meaning that it is artificially aged, if something is purposely treated to looks old, it is a fake, or copy if you wish, in my opinion.
I have recently seen at an antique Fair a seller who import things from China, vintage and fakes, and he had five of such boxes which I found artificially aged.
Prices on ebay are not suited for reference in my opinion. I am sure that if I sell a set like this on ebay I will get almost nothing, but if it is listed by one of those succesful dealers it can get much more.
Regards,
Giovanni
Okay, glad to hear you have seen others. Thank you very much!
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