Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => China & Taiwan => Topic started by: Fuhrman Glass on September 02, 2013, 03:31:52 PM
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Just for "kicks" I just did a google search under Murano glass made in China. It's amazing all the companies that come up listed under Alibaba for producing Murano glass made in China. Evidently there is no law to prevent the use of the name murano from being used for the description of the wares they make. I wonder if murano has now become a generic classification to describe what some would think is a type of glass design.
Many of the companies have the capacity to make 100,000/ month of many items. They might even have some factories that are named Murano glass in China and I would be surprised if this were not the fact. I know for a time in the 50's and 60's there was actually a small city in Taiwan or Hong Kong that was named USA. Hence hey labels things made in USA.
Just some info that I thought some people on the discussion group might find interesting.
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It looks like the 'copyright' only applies in certain countries ;D I have seen the Chinese Murano, a link on here, and Scandinavian style. I have not handled enough of the Quality glass to be 100% confident that its not Chinese, some are easy mind you, labels dont mean much as they are just as easily reproduced. It will only get harder as the Chinese Factories Glassmakers get better at what they do. I think some will become collectable in their own right (may well be now) Im off out wearing my Ray Ban Glasses, Prada Shoes and Gucci Shirt. (Jeans were made in Vietnam I think) ;D ;D ;D
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I haven't been doing anything on the glass front for the last ten years and, now that I am trying to get my brain back up to speed, I have been amazed by some of the glass from China. Ten years ago I felt pretty confident that I could spot a "copy", now I would hesitate to buy something unsigned. Even labels cannot be trusted as they can be stuck on later. And, with the advent of the Dremel, even a signature is no guarantee.
The glass on this site
http://www.damostar.com/supplier.php?go=category&suppId=62271&id=419551
(made by Pujiang Grace Crystal company), particularly the facetted sommerso (second from top) and the "Luxury blown glass vase art glass vase flower glass vase" (second from bottom), would really have caught my eye. Unfortunately there are no measurements given, as it might have been handy to know if that would be a point of differentiation.
I am not in anyway disrespecting Chinese made glass, I just feel that it takes the fun out of it when they copy other makers, rather than coming up with something new that, given the quality of some pieces, could become a collecting field in its own right. If I collect Murano Glass, for example, it doesn't matter how nice the copy is, if its Chinese its not Murano.
I suspect the pictures on the link will change over time, and I know that we cannot upload them to the board, but I think I will try to start a folder of images for reference on my PC. Unless anyone has had a better idea of how we can capture this information.
Cat
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They don't restrict themselves to Murano. Try to decide which of these photos is actually of Kosta Boda Fidji vases, and which is the 5000 sets a month you could buy off Alibaba.
Ross
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Gun to my head, I would say left is the real and right the copies....... No, wait, right is real..... Arghhhh..... It's so hard from pics as little things like the base looking coloured or clear could be the pic. Going to go left for real.
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does it matter in what country the glass was made? Reason I ask is, there are some Italians, Americans, and Scandinavians that from time to time work in China and other countries. A good friend mine has worked with one company in China quite a bit and another worked for a company in Thailand. Dale Chihuly had his work produced in factories all over the world and it still sells for 1000s of dollars. For economic reasons companies produce what they feel they can export and make a profit on. The traditional "Chinese" culture glass is something that does not appeal to the Western cultures and much of the western culture glass does not sell in other cultures. When it comes to forging signatures and identification for fraudulent purposes that is an entirely different story and should not be tolerated.
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Creating new designs in any media, especially glass is difficult and culture rule design studies for each country. Another friend of mine that was a professor at a large design college used to spend a week or more every year actually recruiting students from South Korea to the U.S. . It's an international market and exchange of ideas and designs will become much more frequent. I.E. look at architecture.
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I agree with most of what you say, and it was interesting to read. I did try to make it clear that it wasn't about quality or even about it being Chinese. If you just want a nice piece of glass it isn't even an issue.
However, if you collect and you like to know about the pieces you own, or if you have to part with something and you want to be sure you correctly identify it, there's no denying that the fact these pieces are almost identical, and unmarked, makes it very much harder these days than it was ten years ago.
I appreciate that a great deal of glass is already unmarked, but we have learnt to identify them by form and colour. Now that those forms are being "copied", it is getting harder to do that with confidence. Fortunately, most of the glass I have was collected more than ten years ago.
You say that "traditional 'Chinese' culture glass is something that does not appeal to the Western cultures". That would suggest that all western glass is broadly the same type, which is clearly not the case. I feel that we have a history of fascination with Chinese culture and art, and many of the designs on vintage Peking glass, for example, would appeal.
It will be interesting to see what other members think.
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Every large firm and distribution firms listed in alibaba site ....it has a business from all over the world