Topic: Chribska? or looky likey?

[flying free]

I believe someone discussed the 'hundreds' of glassmakers in China, on another thread. I will try and find it for you, which may give you some idea as to why there is not a 'list' of glassmakers in China.  In addition to which many of those makers names were/are not known as they produce supply for the middle man, so the source of the glass is often hidden.


Example thread here with the Alibaba link.  If you trawl through the alibaba site you may recognise many of the characteristics of some of the glass id'd as possibly Chinese.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,44816.msg249804.html#msg249804

In addition to which, it is my impression from reading on here, that Chinese glass pieces are produced in fairly large quantities so it stands to reason that we may see proportionately more pieces attributed as Chinese made I guess.  In the link I give below,just on the first page the minimum order for one of the vases is 10,000 pieces!

If it hasn't been done already perhaps it might be an idea to start a 'sticky' thread, with a list of identified Chinese glassmakers?  I know that Snowflake and Dalian are talked about quite a bit,but there are many others. This might be helpful in the future?
I have gone to the glass link for vases on Alibaba and hopefully this should take you straight there - just looking at the sheer volume (over 9,000 varieties of vase available) and the variety of producers will explain why it is so difficult to catalogue Chinese glass production

http://www.alibaba.com/catalogs/--1713------------1222-389

m

[heartofsklo]

Thanks flying free.

All I was curious about was why/how people are so sure regarding the alleged Chinese/Japanese pieces without very much ready information.

I personally think that these two vases have an age of approx 40 years or more. This leaves me wondering how they would fit in with the Chinese/Japanese glass imports history should they turn out to be of that manufacture. The vase are not new imports.

[Lustrousstone]

The Chinese and Japanese have long histories of glass making but the problem now is the vast quantities the Chinese produce and the low costs they sell it for

I spend a lot of time looking round "antique" centres, where many examples of mass produced modern glass are slipped amongst the older stuff. Stuff bought at the local wholesaler. And a lot of it has the features I described (when I said size I meant large size)

The size, unbalanced look and opal glass always make me think Chinese.

Your vases may not be Chinese. Were your elderly sources dealers (however small time) or just having a clear out? You can usually tell from their stock. I take everything non-specialist dealers tell me with a large pinch of salt.

[Wayne]

I think part of the problem is that there is no real interest in collecting far eastern glass at the moment.  If someone picks up a vase at a fair or wherever, and sees a label on the bottom saying "made in China", then they are probably more likely to put it back down than add it to their collection.  Then there is the language barrier.  I've often used Google Translate to do searches in Swedish etc when researching, but trying to search in Chinese or Japanese has never really lead anywhere for me.

Having said that, there is of course the China + Taiwan section of this forum here, and I've delved a little bit into Japanese glass here, but it's only the tip of the iceberg.

All I was curious about was why/how people are so sure regarding the alleged Chinese/Japanese pieces without very much ready information.

A lot of it is speculation, like M says, you just get a feel for some of the characteristics, such as base and rim finishes, how the glass is cased etc, which might leads us to say "probably" Chinese.  I don't think anyone is "so sure" though, without evidence of labelled pieces.

[glassobsessed]

Take a look in discount shops regularly to build up a picture, you will see shelves of the current production most with made in China labels. I go into TK Maxx about once a month just to see what they are currently flooding the market with.

Much of it is large and heavy, execution is often poor, design is usually generic as much of it is borrowed from elsewhere.

John

[TxSilver]

So have we decided the vase in this post is Chinese and not something like Mexican?

[Lustrousstone]

Mexican glass would be less likely in the UK I think

[TxSilver]

The thing that makes me wonder if it is NA is the blue tint in the glass, as well as the slag-like appearance of the decor. Most Chinese glass I see along this line has clear glass. I looked for vases like this last night and found two others, but they were not identified, either. This is a very common vase here in the US. I've seen many like it. Perhaps it is Chinese, but I'm not ready to call it that without a label. In these days of international trade, I wouldn't be surprised to see a NA vase show up anywhere in the world. As common as this vase is, I'm sure we'll find one with a label someday.

[TxSilver]

I looked at eBay and found a similar vase -- not the same, but in a similar spirit. It has the made in Mexico label on it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140778045007

[Lustrousstone]

It's certainly very similar