I recently had the chance to view a huge collection of Chinese paperweights and I will never understand the appeal. They are by and large unoriginal junk and will never appreciate in value. Ever.
There were 275 Chinese weights, and everyone looked the same. No originiality in the lampwork or the glass. The glass was dirty, pale green, striated, bubbly. No variety of shadings in colors. Oh sure, one weight had a bee on a petal, another a frog on a leaf, etc., but bland, bland bland. The flowers were without detail. There were a few of the so-called classic imitation weights from the 1930s - really fakes - of classic French and American (New England Glass Co.) They were hideous and so obviously fake that it was embarrassing to look at them. Talk about theft of ideas.
There were only three weights that merited attention - all three were delicate glass weights with painted white discs in them painted with lovely scenes of Chinese life. These were also from the Thirties, and proved if they wanted to, the Chinese paperweight makers could create works of art detailing their history and landscape and rural and river beauty.
All I could think was what a waste of money this was. And what special weights from Scotland or England or France or America could have been purchased with the wasted money.
Topic: huge chinese collection 3 good out of 275 (Read 1853 times)
