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80% of Modern IPBs are now sold to collectors living in China !

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Author Topic: 80% of Modern IPBs are now sold to collectors living in China !  (Read 476 times)
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Peter Bentley 彭达理
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« on: June 24, 2011, 03:58:36 am »

Hi  All

Just came  back from  my monthly  visit to   CAC  ( China  Arts  & Crafts),  Star House  Branch, Kowloon, where  CAC    has its  specialist  IPB  section and  hosts a top  artist  from  Hengshui  every  month. This  month's  artist  is  Zhang Xing Jie  (CIPMA  154/5) , He's a very  short, gentle man  who  paints  in a  variety  of  styles .  Not many  are  Chinese  landscapes, so  I  have  only  bought 3  of   his bottles  so far  ( I almost bought a   4th   bottle  last time  he  came  until I realised   he  had  combined  the  "B"  sides  of   2  of the  previous  bottles   I bought  to make a  "new"  bottle. Seems that  many artists  do  get  rather  stuck in a  rut   once they have   established a  basic   quorum of standard  pictures ).

I noticed  to my  surprise that   asking  prices  were  back  down to  the levels  of  2  years  ago.  Seems the   sudden  price  inflation  at CAC  which I  noticed  earlier  this  year  was sparked a  by a  small   group  of    Taiwan  collectors   who work in HK  and  like to  buy  only the  most    artists  ( eg  Huang San,   Fu Guoshun ), whose  works  are   apprently valued   very  highly in Taiwan .  Apparently the   artist-of-the-month   in May  heard   about the sudden  price rises   and  tried to jack  up  his asking  prices  commensurately,  but  got a  nasty shock  when  almost nothing was  sold.  Obviously  Zhang Xing Jie  has  learned  from  that   and has  priced  sensibly, although   there  were  several  of his  signature  works with "asking"  prices  in the  US$5 -8 K  range . But then  again, every  visting artist  does  that , probably not  wit the  intention of  selling  any, but more  with the  intention  of  showing that  "my best  bottles  are  as    good as , and  are  worth as much  as the  best  of  any  other  senior  artist"

BUT  most  interestingly  ...  I  got  talking to  Mr Zhang  about   who now  is  buying  most of the  output  from  Hengshui . He   said that it's  now  mostly   collectors living  in Mainland China.  Apparently  there's   between    70-100    collectors  in China, many of them    quite  recent  collectors,   and some   quite young people,  who together   in total  buy   about   80%  of the  best  output from  Hengshui.

That  to me  is  quite a  surprise, but  it's   very  good   for the   artist  community  because they  don't have to  reach  out  abroad  so much as before.  Apparently   the  Wang Xisan  Museums  in  Shijiazhuang and  - now  -  Beijing,   are becoming a   growing  marketing   channel  (  each museum  has an attached  shop).   And  of course  collectors  in China   have the  advantage  over  western collectors  of  being  able to communicate   directly  with  artists  once they  get to  know them

This  could  explain the  exorbitant  prices  I recently  experienced  for   some  quite  average bottles  ina  BJ   specialist  shop  in Beijing  that   sells  mostly  to  tourists, but    keeps a handful of    well-painted  bottles for  more  discerning  collectors.

Hope  this  is  useful. More  update  info  when I have  it

Cheers   Peter

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Pat - 查尚杰
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« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2011, 01:07:29 am »

Interesting but indeed confirms one of my earlier posts here about the same subject.  Not sure where this was.. anway... in addition to this some middle-men/women and runners are being shut-out.  I know of several who have just stopped buying and selling modern IPBs because the buying prices are becoming too important for them, given the rising .base' prices of glass/crystal/quartz/agate as compared to 'plain' (sorry) porcelain or other base materials.  This matches in full the shift to local buyers that you mention, especially because of the language, and the local presence in China.

Too add to that, the street and antique markets I used to scour, are drying up of any older bottles (regardless of whether IPB or not), and the prices are going through the roof.  Even the basic modern times painted bottles (1960-1990) are now untouchable under about 40-50 USD,.. these can be compared to the student bottles of  recent days, but were produced often in low quality glass, where additional paint/tint was used to 'darken' or 'age' the bottle for the reason of disguising the lower quality of glass.

If all these factors and signs are a sign on the wall, then we are definetely in a transition phase in IPB collecting, and the shift is away from us even seeing the bottles of the future, let alone buy them.  Chinese are generally a lot more 'personal' and 'discreet' in their collecting style.  
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Pat
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« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2011, 07:12:39 pm »

Perhaps it will be the Chinese, not us, who show the rest of the world, ICSBS included, the value of the work of modern artists.
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« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2011, 08:08:30 pm »

Bill

Somehow I am convinced that your statement will hold true in the future, if not already the case...
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