Examples of " Gift Quality" Bottles @ about US$100

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi All

Here are    3  examples  of  what  I call  " Gift  Quality" Bottles



These are bottles  which I have seen from time to  time in  specialist  Bottle  shops  in China.  I thought  them   very   well painted   and , whether  signed or not,   they  would  make a  nice  gift to a  non-collector  friend. In fact the  tall middle  bottle  is  signed  ( Liu Yu)  whom I guess is a    young  Hengshui  painted. It  came as one of a  pair  in identical but  complementary  styles . The     Chinese  girl  is  unsigned , and   is one of    half a  dozen , all obviously  by the same  artist,  in  a Shanghai bottle  shop .  I bought this one bottle   because I thought  the  girl's  face was  particularly   beautiful  and I liked  her smile. Last time  I   visited that particular  shop there   were  still several  in this  series .  The  goldfish bottle is also  unsigned  but   is among   the  best  goldfish bottles  I have ever seen, even including   those  by Master  artists.  Perhaps the    artwork/ composition is   a  little  bit  immature, but  certainly the    skill and   fine, delicate  painting  is  1st class.  I found this  bottle  in  a  Guangzhou  Bottle  Shop. Later  I found  another    one, obviously  by the same  artist, in   Beijing

In all cases,  regardless of  what the  Shop was asking ( US$ 300....   400  ) I  just  offered  US$100 "take it or  leave it"  and  in every case  the Shop managr agreed    immediately.  So I guess the  Shop bought  them  for  about  US$ 70  from a  "Hengshui   Runner",  who paid  US$ 40 - 50  to the  artist  .  To me , this   again   demonstrates  that  for  modern     skilled  painting   there  is a  base   price  of  about  US$50  , which  is  set  by what the  artist  will accept  for abottle   which  he has probably  spent   3  -4  days    on

If  anyone is  interested  in bottles  of this  skill/ style/ theme/ price   I am happy to  look out for them   when in China. I can  easily  take a  pic and   send to  you ,   even while   actually in the    shop, and certainly the same evening back at my hotel .    My trips to each China   city   normally last a week so  I can  go back and  buy the  bottle  if you   want me  to do so on your behalf

Cheers  Peter  @  HK

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  again

Please see  previous  posting

The  inserted image  was  1.3 MB   which is    why the  right  hand side  was  cut  off

Here's a     300 kB image ( also   copy  attached )



Cheers  Peter

[George]

I don't know there Peter my friend..

The bottle to the left falls under a photo enhanced type of image. Not painted at all.. At least that is my humble opinion as have not had any replies to a  photo enhance thread started a while back. Although a couple of eBay sellers have confessed that these are in fact photo enhanced, but they are un aware of the exact process.

I do not purchase any bottles from an online seller that offer these bottle along with their others.

The other two would sure make some nice gifts though !

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi George

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm         

You  may indeed be  correct  about the  girl  bottle  !     

I never  looked closely at it  before,  but I just   had a   very careful look   with a  high power    15  x   magnifying  glass .

From  the  inside  it seems to have  been painted  because you can see  the    reverse  painting  layers .  But there is something "wrong"   with the front side. The   fine  detail on the   embroidery   seems   fuzzy / out of   focus  under the  magnifying  glass.   If  it was  painted  it  should  break down   under  magnification  into  individual  brush   strokes,  not a    fuzzy  image .   And the   girl's skin   has a  sort of   "cracked" appearence, like  very  fine  lines radiating from  points ,  which  would   also   suggest they  are not caused  by brush strokes .

Also, the   base  area  is  darkened  out  just as in the    pic  you   show under the Photoenhanced  image  thread . I never attached   any importance to the   dark base  before  until  I  read  your   earlier  thread

And, the  background  leaves  are   certainly  painted  in an  entirely different   and much simpler style  from the   girl , as if they  were   added afterwards  by  another  artist.

Mmmmmmmm   very interesting   !    Seems  I have been  taken  for  a  ride  on that  one.  Even stranger because  it came   from the  reputable bottle  shop  in SH  I use.

 Tomorrow  I will    take  better  pics  of the   front and  back  of the  bottle and  post them  with a copy of this  message  under  your Photo enhanced  image  thread  .

I have a  very good  quality (and  100%  genuine)  "  Chinese girl"   bottle  which  I bought  from  Bill   to the  same level of  superficial  detail  so I  will take some  hi  -res  pics  of that  as well  for comparison and post them as well .

Maybe  we  can   get to the  bottom  of this  together.

Thanks  again  for    pointing this  out !          

Cheers  Peter  @  HK

[George]

Hope you don't mind...

I posted your last post to the "What About Those Photo Enhanced Bottles" thread so we can have as much information and experiences from others as possible there.

You mentioned possibly posting more info as you look closer, so we can pick it up within that thread 

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi George

Many thanks .     You saved  me the  trouble of   moving the  post  myself.

This  morning I will   take a  bunch of  pics  for the  Photo  enhanced    thread  and post them there.

Cheers  Peter