@clayandbrush 

Dear Giovanni, while I have no problem seeing JHT items on Ebay I can never see anything from Koh Antique, though I have twice bought from him. I think they have, perhaps inadvertently, excluded single countries from their list. You can try to type www.ebay.com or www.ebay.co.uk in your browser on a desktop computer and search without logging in. When I bought from Koh Antique I just copied the article number into my account and could order without problems. Though you probably wouldn’t want to buy from JHT😀

@shinigami

Thank you dear Ingrid, good idea, I didn't thought that.

Regards,

Giovanni

@clayandbrush

Hi Giovanni:

I forgot to answer your question about whether the Cong vases sold by JHT were supposedly from the Vermeer estate. I think JHT used that for a while in the past, but not in this case. The Cong vases were supposedly from the collection of a certain deceased Mr. Pao who half a century ago owned an Asian antique store at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. We will need to hold a seance to confirm this. Does anyone know of someone who can reliably communicate with the dead?

A few years ago, I won a few Vermeer items at different auctions run by JHT and other eBay sellers. They had the Vermeer and Griggs label on the foot. Also, I was able to find them in the catalogs of Brunk Auctions. So, I could tell that JHT and the other eBay sellers had obtained them from Brunk Auctions  and I therefore assume they were genuinely from the Vermeer estate. I know that the better Vermeer items were sold at auction by Christie's and the secondary items were auctioned by Brunk. I am attaching photographs of some  of these items (see below). The group photographs are of lots from Brunk's catalog for the auction at which the different eBay sellers presumably bought the items.

Regards,

Errol

Dear Erroll,

Do you mean that you have bought all those vases? I am really envious. Mike Vermeer was a great specialist on monochromes. Each of his items has a plus value for that.

The prices fetched at Brunk auctions were a shame.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to buy in USA from Italy.

BTW, coming back to the blue cong vases of the Guangxu period, for reference here are the pictures of the base and the inside of my one.

Useless to say which are more convincing.

Regards

Giovanni

Hello,

I was a buyer at that Brunk auction sale of “secondary“ items from his collection.  I recognized several items that I knew Mike had held in very high regard.  The first lot was a pair Lang Yao bowls that were easily worth ten times what they sold for at that auction.  I could kick myself for not jumping in during the bidding!  I had marked out other lots because I thought the bowls would go for serious money.

Attached is one of the items that I was successful in winning.  Did anyone keep any records of Mike’s old website?  There was a ton of good information there and it would be a great source for checking provenance.  It was taken down by his estate before I had a chance to copy down the information.

@clayandbrush

Hello Giovanni:

I bought the four individual vases shown. They were auctioned by different eBay sellers after the Brunk's auction. The group or lot photographs are from the Brunk's catalog and I don't own any of the others shown in the lots. I posted the lot photographs to show that my items came from Brunk's Auction House originally  and therefore are likely genuine Vermeer pieces and not vases to which someone simply affixed the Vermeer-Griggs label.  I agree that the Vermeer name does add a lot of value. I agree also that the Vermeer items went for prices that were far too low. It would be difficult to imagine nowadays that any of his monochromes would be combined into lots rather than being sold individually.

Would you mind posting photographs of your blue Cong vase? I would be very interested to see how it looks compared to the one from 
Christie's and the two from JHT.

Kind regards,

Errol

@william

Hello William:

Yes - you should have bought everything in sight at the auction even if you had to take out a loan. It would have been an excellent investment! Would it be correct to categorize your Vermeer vase as a Guan Crackle Hu vase and is the color pale Celadon? It is very lovely. What reign do you think it derives from?

It's interesting that you should ask about the Vermeer website. Some years ago, an eBay seller offered a Vermeer item similar to yours and I asked Peter Combs about it. My memory is hazy, but either he or someone else gave me a link to the website and that was after Mike Vermeer had died. I would bet that if anyone has it (and I definitely saw it) Peter will have a record of it somewhere.

Regards,

Errol

@erroll

You are right in calling the glaze Guan crackle ware in imitation of Song examples.  The color can be described as grayish-green with some of the crackle stained brown, but not all of the crackle is stained.  The archaic hu shape first appeared in Ching official ware in the Yongzheng reign.  The next Emperor had a similar taste for Song revival wares so these things continued through the rest of the 18th century.

These photos are too blue for some reason and I had no luck adjusting them to achieve the correct grey-green hue.  As for age, Brunk said 18th-19th century to play it safe.  I think the non-standard foot added to the confusion.  Also, this hand thrown pot (10 3/4”) is a little wonky as you can see from the base.  The top opening is just slightly torqued out of square.  Definitely not Ching official ware quality.  It still looks quite nice on display.

Mike Vermeer had it on his website and he thought it was 100% 18th century.  I don’t remember if he attributed it to a specific reign and I never discussed the piece with him since I figured it was out of my price range.  About six months ago, I came across some photos of my vase on the website of a dealer based in England. (www.chineseantiques.co.uk)  He had copied some of the photos from Mike’s website as a tribute to their friendship.  Unfortunately, he didn’t include the written descriptions along with the photos of Mike’s stock.  I emailed him that I was the owner of that particular Guan vase and he replied that he thought it was something they had discussed at one time.  Mike had talked to him about placing the piece with Christie’s in London.  I guess it was at a time when Mike was out of favor with the major auction houses.  Just to put it diplomatically, Mike didn’t “suffer fools gladly”.

@william

Hello William:

Thanks for all the interesting information and additional photographs. I think all those irregularities you depict and describe are quite charming and make it the real antique item that it is. I think pale greens and blues are very difficult to capture accurately in photographs. Yes, many people still characterize Mike Vermeer as being "difficult" and cantankerous, but it's clear he was a true scholar particularly in the monochrome area. I had understood that tea dust was his favorite color for monochromes.

Regards,

Errol

@erroll

He was crazy for teadust wares!  I remember seeing two display cabinets full of teadust in his house outside of Atlanta.  He was always talking about writing a book on teadust wares.  It’s such a shame it never happened.  I wonder if his sister kept his computer and any notes about his collection?  Like the 19th century collectors, he collected in the grand manner.  I was dumbfounded by the sheer quantity of Chinese porcelains stuffed in that house.  There was a crawl space in his basement that had shelves that held miniature vases/snuff bottles by the hundreds in a rainbow of colors.  It was all just amazing!

Hello William:

Since you knew Mike Vermeer, if you ever had free time he would be worth a Wikipedia page. His sister could provide biographical details and there are many examples of his collection on the Internet that are not copyrighted that could be used for illustration. He certainly did a lot for antique Chinese art. I think Jan-Erik Nilsson at Gotheborg.com also knew him quite well and could provide information. Indeed, there is a memorial paragraph to Mike Vermeer on that website that reads as follows:

"Michael Lawrence Vermeer (1947-2015) - Moderator.

Powder Springs, Atlanta, Georgia. In 1976, Michael Vermeer and Alan Griggs joined in a partnership creating Vermeer & Griggs in Los Angeles. Alan who was already well known in the antique trade for his knowledge of Oriental carpets, Chinese porcelain, Asian art, and Continental antique art that included paintings, furniture, bronzes and object 'd art became his teacher, partner and business associate. The 1st September 2000 Mike Vermeer joined our group of friends and collectors. He was among the first to join our original discussion list and one of the first to become a moderator at our Discussion Board where he for more than a decade lectured on Imperial porcelain and Chinese taste, monochromes - of which teadust was his absolute favourite - and the understanding of quality as such. Mike continued to refer to his partner, and other mentors like Clarence Shangraw, and the dear grand old lady of Chinese porcelain Margaret Medley, with great fondness and admiration throughout his life."

Regards,

Errol

I guess their site was named 'teadust.com' for a reason. But this is one of these nights where I simply cannot sleep so I'm doing some random searches and look what I just found. https://auctions.freemansauction.com/auction-lot-detail/A%2DChinese%2DGuan%2Dtype%2Dvase%2C%2DHu%2C/1569+++++289+/++972955

@avatar

That is a remarkable and fascinating find! William is in the best position to comment. Although the shapes of his vase and this one  are very similar, I recall William saying that his measured 10-3/4 inches whereas the Hu vase offered at auction by Freeman's Auction in 2017 measures 7-1/4". The colors of the two vases seem somewhat different although some of that could be due to differences in photographic technique. The remarkable thing is that this vase sold at auction for $25,000 (including buyer's premium) and that was ten times the upper estimate of $2,500. Even though it is a lovely vase, it is on the small side as compared with William's vase. I assume the high price was because of the Vermeer-Griggs provenance.  William's vase could therefore be very valuable assuming the Freeman's vase was just not a freak occurrence. There is no question that in these days of fake items provenance makes all the difference to the hammer price. It's interesting too that Freeman's did not try to date the vase.

Regards,

Errol

@erroll

Very interesting find by avatar.  To be quite honest with you, I have gone back and forth trying to slot this piece into the 18th or 19th century.  Being a confirmed “foot man” for age determination, I don’t see the clues I was taught to search for on a pot that is thrown on a wheel.  Guan ware comes in a variety of shades that lean in the direction of light greens, blues and creams as long as there is crackle. The attached picture of my vase is from that English dealer’s website, listed under “Guan Ge Type Examples “.  There are quite a variety of shades to be seen.  This photo is still slightly too green.

One thing that puzzles me about the description of the Freeman’s vase is the term “lightly potted”?  Do they imply a very thin clay body with a thick glaze applied to the surface?  I would not use that term to describe my vase. Mine is bloody heavy with an amazingly thick application of glaze inside and outside the clay body.  Mike used to consult for Freeman’s Asian department on porcelain items so they certainly knew him.  I would assume that some interested buyers examined that vase and saw clues pointing to an 18th century origin and the provenance gave them the confidence to commit to a appropriate 18th century price.