Topic: Chinese Pate de Verre/Pate de Crystal lidded box help need on characters/maker

[flying free]

I've been trying to track down the maker of this pate de crystal (? I think - I am assuming it is Lost Wax made but open to correction) lidded box.  It has two very intricate dragons as handles on the lid.  Dragons around the outside of the body of the box as well as a graphic dot design.  It measures 12cm tall (4 3/4") by 8.25cm widest (3 1/4").  The glass is 1.4cm thick at the rim of the body of the box and the rim is bevelled and polished. The base is highly polished flat and striations can be seen in the thickness of the glass where it was 'cast'. It weighs 2 3/4lb!
It has it's own lovely wooden covered box (cream with deep red on the interior boxing) and has characters on the lid of the box.  I cannot read them and embarassingly I'm not sure if I've photographed them the correct way up either - my apologies if not.
It does look similar'ish' in design to some early Liuligongfang pieces I've managed to find, but the piece itself is not marked and the characters on the box do not match the Liuligongfang mark.  I've tried other makers but not managed to identify it by matching.  Any help would be very much appreciated please  :sun:
many thanks
m

[Mosquito]

Hi,

The characters are the right way up! They read 漢王琉璃 'Han Wang Liu-Li'. I've not seen this mark before, so it's quite an interesting find. 'Han' refers to the Han dynasty, 'Wang' means King. Note that 'Han' here is in traditional script; the modern, simplified character looks like this: 汉

[flying free]

Phew I hoped I'd managed to get it the right way up Steven and thank you for replying.
I've added a couple of details about the base finish and weight to my original post.
I'll have a look now to see if I can find anything about Han Wang Liu-li.  Thank you so much again.  Oh, I think I've managed to work out which characters are Liu-li!  My very limited Chinese is limited to the Cantonese of my previous address so I could actually get home in a taxi from work   I've forgotten the very few other things I learnt whilst there  (in my defence my Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) is an awful lot better lol)
m

[Greg.]

The Liuli part of the wording, is the archaic Chinese word for glass artwork.

To quote from Liuligongfang's website:

The word is used in place of the more common word for glass because Liuli is more refined and embodies Chinese culture and history.

In order to emphasize cultural significance, the founders the company Liuligongfang because Liuli had been coined 3000 years ago in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties of China. Through Liuligongfang’s efforts, modern Chinese crystal glass today is called “Liuli”.

(sorry M, I think our posts crossed)

[flying free]

This is what I have found so far -
I think this 'could' be Heinrich Wang - Newworkshop glass?
I put in the Chinese characters you gave on your post Steven and translated the site that came up.  All the pieces pictured on the site have 'HW glass' written  under them.  The site talks about Glass Centres and the Newworkshop Glass.
I guess HW could stand for Han Wang, but could it also be Heinrich Wang?  on another thread on here I found this link -
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,3385.msg26268.html#msg26268
so could this be the mark for Newworkshop Glass maybe?

According to the link and Ivo's info, Heinrich Wang set up New Workshop in 1988 but left in 1994 to set up Grand Crystal Co.  From what I have read, I think the article was written in 2002 from the info given in the link ( link here see below), a deal was done for Grand Crystal Co products to be marketed under the brand name Tittot glass from 2001? (open to correction)
http://www.ieatpe.org.tw/TIT/tit11_28.htm

corrected to add info from the Tittot website quote 'In 1994, Y.S. Wang and Heinrich Wang joined hands and established [tittot...], and followed by [tittot Glass Art Museum] later in 1999.

so I wonder then, do I have an earlier piece of Heinrich Wang glass from when he was at New Shop or Newworkshop (I've come across both names describing this)
m

[Ivo]

Liuli gongfang is mainland China, Heinrich Wang is Taiwan - so no cigar. Liuli have extremely prestigious and expensive outlets in large hotels and in Beijing airport.  And ambitious! Check out this
http://www.liuli.com/en-us/tmsk_magazine_download.aspx

[flying free]

Ivo, I'm confused by your post - easily done I'm afraid  
I thought Tittot and Liuligongfang were two different companies?
I was not suggesting this was  Liuligongfang piece.  I was suggesting it could be an early Heinrich Wang piece though.  Tittot glass is Taiwan.
 
mm, maybe HW glass have nothing to do with him though  I have no idea when that site was put on or when the information was loaded onto it.   There is a piece on the site I linked to though, that is so similar to my box that I'm pretty sure my box has come from them, whoever they are though.
Just need to find out who they are now 
m

[flying free]

sorry I don't know how to do a shortened link but this is the translated page using Steven's chinese characters - the lidded box there is so similar to mine that I think it must be the same maker.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%25E6%25B1%2589%25E7%258E%258B%25E7%2590%2589%25E7%2592%2583&ei=vVPFTpWRBJOz8QOry7iVCw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25E6%25BC%25A2%25E7%258E%258B%25E7%2590%2589%25E7%2592%2583%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D583%26prmd%3Dimvns

[flying free]

Aha!  my confusion has arisen because I read this in a previous thread

'I think this may be the studio called "New Workshop"which was founded by Heinrich Wang in 1988. Six years later he founded Grand Crystal Co. (Taiwan) which makes the most stunning glass in Pate-de-verre and lost wax.
I've seen their full display and was very very impressed.'

From what I have read online, it says Heinrich Wang  set up something called 'New Shop' ??- so they seem to be two different operations.... or are they?

The site I have been referring to showing 'HW glass', talks about Newworkshop.  Newworkshop as far as I can see is a trade name set up by Liuligongfang (who are also Taiwan based I believe - open to correction here).
It's very confusing.

But what may illuminate is this is what the Corning Museum of Glass says:
'Loretta Yang is a well-known Chinese actress.  In 1987, she joined Chang Yi and Heinrich Wang, who had worked with her in the Chinese film industry, in founding the glass company Liuli Gongfang near Taipei, Taiwan.' (my underlining)  - So I think we are referring to the same company here.

But it still leaves me with not knowing who HW glass are - although a lot of the info next to those photos on the Chinese translated link I gave, seems to repeat info from the LIuligongfang site.  I'm back to wondering if Han Wang Liuli, is actually another mark for  Liuligongfang  :help:

m

[Ivo]

As far as I know there are several companies involved both on the main land and in Taiwan. It's a world out there.