Topic: And there's more...

[tropdevin]

Yet another respectable eBay seller who has got it all wrong... Baccarat ?? orAntique French lampwork ??.

I have emailed about one item, suggesting that none of their paperweight attributions look right to me.

Alan

[alexander]

First one I'd guess 20thC Bohemian or Murano, second one is chinese (wrote them a mesage about that one).

[Pip]

I'm not trying to jump on the bandwagon here especially since I am an absolute dunce of the highest order when it comes to paperweights - as Manuel would say 'I know nothing' however it always amuses me when you read statements like this 'I know nothing about paperweights but this is almost certainly Baccarat'

If you know pretty much nothing about something how can you then go on to give an attribution?  I don't believe the sellers in these cases are out to con anyone however - they just believe whatever it is they're told when they buy something and repeat it verbatim when they come to sell.   I've also seen this happen on this board when someone asks for help with an attribution, stating that they know nothing about the item in question and then go on to argue fairly vehemently that it's not what they're then told it might be (especially if they think it's top end and they're told it's modern Polish or Chinese).

The same with the paperweights - they don't know what they are but they're almost certainly the most sought-after, valuable and collectable type - does one ever see a seller say 'I don't know much about weights but I reckon these could be modern Chinese?'.

[aa]

Pip, you make a very interesting point. Many sellers, whether professional dealers or just collectors, do not have encyclopaedic knowledge and rely mainly on the story that came with the piece. If they bought it in an auction described as Whitefriars, then they will sell it on as Whitefriars. In most cases there is no intention to mislead. People just say whatever it is that they have been told either by the person from whom they acquired it from, or by people they have shown it to. "It must be very old because my grandmother is over 70 and her mother gave it to her"  Thought bubble: so presumably your great-grandmother bought it new 15 years ago!

As for those stories that come with the piece, some of my earlier work is beginning to appear in charity shops and at fairs so from time to time I hear some wonderful stories about myself and how I made a particular piece and I often wonder whether I have missed entire chapters of my life!!

[tropdevin]

I see that the seller has now correctly indentified the Strathearn bud vase, after my email to them, and called the Chinese flower a 1930s weight rather than antique French. But we still have a Murano style overlay called antique French.

Alan

[m1asmithw8s]

That Chi weight is modern.

[alexander]

How do you tell the modern flowers from the old ones?

I have a couple of the older chi millefiori but none of the flowers
(or check that - I have one sitting in London waiting to be picked up by my dad sometime in the future
So haven't been able to study that one much yet.

When I wrote the seller I mentioned it was probably made "between 1930 and last week" 

[m1asmithw8s]

Modern Chi flowers as shown above have poorer workmanship overall and the green leaves are paddle like in comparison to their 1930s counterparts.
Additionally, the central canes in the modern versions have solid yellow rods as opposed to hollow yellow tubes in the 1930s examples.

[Cathy B]

I've bought from this seller before. I've dropped her a line to see whether that helps.