Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: bat20 on March 04, 2015, 05:45:34 PM
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Hi all,I'm fairly certain this is a Chinese white,although I can't find pandas on the web just birds and flowers,any info great fully received.
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Sorry,it's about 3"we and 2"ht.
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Looks good to me.
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Hi. As some members of this board know, I collect Chinese Whites and have written a couple of articles about them (there is a link to one of them on the front page of my website). This is a known - though not common - design. As well as many birds and flowers you can find other animals, insects, vehicles, boats, a whole range of landscapes, fish, poems etc. The ones with birds and flowers are the commonest versions, followed by landscapes.
Alan
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Thanks Christine and Alan,I have been looking at them in books and on the net for a while now so when I saw it at eye level I was hopeful,it did give me a bit of a surprise when I looked at it as I was expecting flowers and swallows or something similar,on reflection you can't get a more Chinese image I suppose,the fruits or flowers still have me a tad puzzled ,though I'm not an expert on panda diets.
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Very nice paperweight. I wish it was in my collection. :)
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I don't want to give the impression that I'm a geek type that would on a Friday night look on eBay just to stare at unaffordable French weights and what have you, ::)however tonight I was doing just that and a certainly not Chinese White has been listed with two pandas munching on the same red flowers?so perhaps these are bambo flowers and a staple part of their diet for the bambo flowering period?
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More likely they are of some good luck significance. Bamboo flowers look like big grass flowers
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Hi there,
I was intrigued by these red flowers, too. If one Googles Chinese bamboo forests, there is no evidence of such flowers in any of the pictures one finds in this way. Still, such plants may flower for a short period or their addition could simply be artistic or symbolic as Christine suggests.
In any event, I own also the Chinese white attached below; it shows a single panda eating a bamboo (with red flowers on the ground).
SophieB
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I think maybe the red things are not flowers but berries.
And perhaps pomegranate berries, as they are, according to some websites, symbolic of "many offspring", which for the population status of Giant Panda, would make sense.
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Hi Kevin,
This sounds very very plausible to me... One of the things Alan demonstrates in his articles is the importance of Chinese symbolism in the design of those weights.
Also, I have read somewhere that giant pandas eat mostly bamboos but that they can eat berries, flowers and small rodents too.
So as far as I am concerned this mystery is cleared. Many thanks Kevin! :)
SophieB
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Thanks everyone interesting ,nice weight Sophie,i wonder how many panda designs alone there are?
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Hi. I am working on establishing a 'Chinese White Gallery' on my website, which I hope will be live in the next month or so. I have seen three panda designs: the two illustrated in this thread (of which we have copies in our collection...) and one of a panda walking under some bamboo. The latter was in the largest collection of Chinese Whites I have seen, and belonged to Peter Metcalfe, who had around 100. These included some quite uncommon designs ( eg a resting deer) and ashtrays (of which I have one, he had 3). All four ashtrays have birds as the main design, one of Peter's having a garland of millefiori canes.
Alan
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Hi. Having now looked at my book on symbolism in Chinese art, a strong possibility for the red berries / fruit is that they are the fruit of the Jujube Tree, also called Chinese Dates. These sometimes symbolise fertility or wealth. The foliage is somewhat like that shown on the Chinese White, although that may well be bamboo.
Alan
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Hi Alan,
Just when I thought the mystery was solved... ???
On a different point, I am fairly sure that I have seen a Chinese white with a different two-pandas design. I think it was owned by Ann Slater (I have a vague memory of coming across this in the PCC newsletter - quite a while back).
Another weight for us to hunt!!!!
SophieB
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Chinese white gallery sounds great :)looking closely at my weight the fruits are made up of little red dots making up the whole,could be dried jujube?having just looked them up,I wonder also wether the original sketches were done at a zoo and the fruits were something thrown in......just stop me when I start getting way off track. :o
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Yup off track,the first zoo panda in the usa 1930 and strangely the first Chinese zoo panda 1950.
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Hi All. I have put a Gallery of 40 Chinese White images on my website, with examples of animals, birds, insects, landscapes etc. There will be more when I get a chance to add them. There is a link to the Gallery on the front page of my website (http://www.pwts.co.uk).
Alan
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Hi Alan,
Many thanks for doing this.
There are plenty there that I have never seen in the flesh... It has set me drooling in a big way!! ;D
SophieB
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Really nice resource for everyone there,thanks Alan,think I'm a cricket man myself,and the fish,bus...I like them all actually. ;D