Hello from Spain Barcelona

[guest226]

Hello my name is Jose, 23 years old. I´m from Barcelona -Spain- Europe and I´m new on this whit the snuff bottles.
I started almost 2 years ago to buy and resell Chinese art and porcelain and I was very interested in the snuff bottles and I thinked to start a coleccion but how all we know when you start you buy a lot of items like a "crazy" and you buy a lot of bad items.
I have some items in my house and I need some opinions about that!

thx all very much and  hope we can be friends!

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Bienvenido Jose!
good to have another European member, I am from Italy. Hope you will have fun here. I am relatively new to the board and can assure you that you can feel yourself among friends here.
If I may give you a suggestion, in posting the pictures of your bottles it will be better if you size them so that the size is about 800 pixels and the weight no more than 100 kb. That way the images are better readable and will not take too much space.
Giovanni

[OIB]

Greetings from tropical Singapore.
I am Inn Bok, a new comer to the forum as well.
I have been collecting bottles on and off since early 1990. Learnt quite a lot reading the postings
last night.
Encountered problem trying to post a message last night. Informed Bottle Guy.
Hope this time it works.
Inn Bok

[Steven]

Welcome to the forum ,

I Bet that you will have a lot of fun here.

Steven

[guest226]

Thx very much to ALL!!

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Welcome to the Forum, Jose . A great collector, Carlos Soler, whose son, Jose Carlos is in the Catalan government, lives in Barcelona, a wonderful city. I especially like the Chocolateries in the Old City.
  I live in Jerusalem, Israel, and have a summer home in Ireland.
Best, Joey

[Wattana]

Hola! Jose,

Welcome to the forum. You have come to the right place for snuff bottle collectors!

Tom

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Benvenido Jose... I am Pat, I live in Bangkok and work throughout Southeast Asia.  Used to live and work in China for 7 years before this.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Jose,
   Re-reading this, I realised that you are 23 and started at 21. Wonderful. Take your time, and buy books. Educate yourself and your 'eye' to recognise quality examples.
   If you post things, we will look and give our best judgements over the internet. Personally, I need to handle things live to get a really good feeling whether they are genuine or not, etc. However, many of the others have an amazing feel even over the internet.
  Again, Welcome.
Joey

[guest226]

Jose,
   Re-reading this, I realised that you are 23 and started at 21. Wonderful. Take your time, and buy books. Educate yourself and your 'eye' to recognise quality examples.
   If you post things, we will look and give our best judgements over the internet. Personally, I need to handle things live to get a really good feeling whether they are genuine or not, etc. However, many of the others have an amazing feel even over the internet.
  Again, Welcome.
Joey

Hello I started at 14 years old whit european antiques paintings, furniture, bronze and other items I have my eye ready to buy good items ) I started at 21 years old to buy Chinese art and Porcelain because always when I go to the auction houses here in Barcelona I saw a lot of wonderfull chinese porcelain.
I started to coleccting jade and now I want to collect snuff bottles!

And one more thing how you said you need to have the item in your hands to give a better opinion for me is the same!

Again thx to ALL

[richy88]

Welcome, Jose!

Enjoy your stay.

Regards.


Richard

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Jose,
   That is truly amazing! You started in European antiques at 14. I started in Chinese snuff bottles just before my 13th birthday. A young man in Massachusetts started just after his 12th birthday. Axel Chu, who is Clare and Michael Chu's son (they have the Asian Arts Studio, in LA), started at age 6. He is now 12 (I think; possibly 13).
   It is good that you've trained your eye toward quality, but some things are type specific.
For example, I've been trying to explain that some snuff bottles sold as antique are 'too' good. We are used to thinking that today, everything is made more quickly and less well, than things were made 100 or 200 or more years ago. That can be true, but is not automatic. In the last ten years, I've seen more and more examples, especially in carved and polychrome enamelled porcelain snuff bottles, that the modern bottles are grander and more ornately decorated, than bottles from 1750 to 1890. This is at least partially because modern glazes and kilns are much more able to produce results impossible to achieve before the 1950s/1960s.
  We discussed, on the Forum,  modern inside painted snuff bottles (from 1960 onward), versus  bottles from ca. 1800 to the 1950s/1960s, and how the development of a proper inside painting brush in the 1950s has lead to a serious improvement in the quality of the painting. We were able to help the V&A in London, one of the most serious museums in the UK, correct wrong info on one of their holdings,  thanks to this serious study.
  It will be wonderful to have another person to share knowledge with, and to learn from. Because it is a two way street. Giovanni, from Italy, is relatively new on the Forum, and yet has contributed much in excess of the length of time he actually joined. I'm only on the Forum since 18.Jan.2012 (so tomorrow is 11 months!).
 Again, welcome aboard!
Joey

[deelsb26]

welcome Jose, it is so exciting getting to hear from people all over the world. I am a newbie at collecting these wonderful snuff bottles, but our love for these little bottles is what ties us all together, even though we are different in locations, financial circumstances, knowledge etc...this forum is caring and helpful to all. Have fun.
Danna, from texas

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Danna,
   I didn't know you were from Texas. Where, if you don't mind my asking? Steven lives with his family in Plano.
Joey

[deelsb26]

I live probably an hours drive from steven, in a small town named Decatur, aprox 40 miles north of fort worth...yes, steven and I know we are neighbors...maybe some day I will be able to see his Wang Xisan bottles in person 

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

All right, then when I next get over to visit in Plano (I have friends who are netsuke collectors; in fact the husband was the president of the netsuke society for years), I'll organise to meet both of you, G-D Willing.
Joey

[Steven]

Dear Danna,

Call me when you are ready to visit my family.

Steven

[Steven]

All right, then when I next get over to visit in Plano (I have friends who are netsuke collectors; in fact the husband was the president of the netsuke society for years), I'll organise to meet both of you, G-D Willing.
Joey

Dear Joey,

Please let us know when you have it scheduled, there is some good chinese food over here, ofcoz the hotpot is my favorite.

Steven

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Steven,
   I love hotpot. Just no pork or shellfish, please. Lamb, beef, chicken,  are all fine. Darn! Now you've got my mouth watering, and no good Chinese restaurant left in Jerusalem!
  We used to have a great one, Da La Tian, non-kosher (but I didn't eat the pork or shellfish; it left more for my mom and dad, both of blessed memory, who loved both!).
  It was opened by an Ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, Mr. Fong, who'd been a helicopter pilot in South Vietnam, and first escaped a 're-education camp', and then, with his wife, escaped Vietnam on a ship. He was on a ship which was going down in the South China Sea, and a ZIM (Israeli) freighter rescued all 66 from the sinking ship; Mr. Begin's first act as prime minister of Israel, in June 1977, was to bring them all to Israel, and give them Israeli citizenship. Between 1977 and 1979, Israel absorbed another 400+.  Sadly, most have emigrated to USA, to be rejoined with family and friends, and we wish them well, but wish they'd not closed all the best Chinese restaurants in our country.
  Now, we have great Sushi restaurants, kosher and non-kosher, and other great ethnic foods. But I miss being able to walk 10 min. and get great Peking duck, West Lake soup,  duck in black bean sauce, orange peel beef,  bao buns, hot & sour soup, and Mongolian hotpot, etc. etc. We never had great dimsum, for some reason.
  Now I'm hungry!  
Joey

[George]

Hello and welcome to the forum Jose !

So sorry was not here earlier..

Been swamped last couple days. This is the first have been able to check in for quite a while !

Any way... Warm welcome !