Porcelain bottle on ebay

Hello all,

I am sorry to come in on this one 'after the horse has bolted', but I have been away for some weeks and this is my first chance to catch up on the threads.

I am not expert enough to give an authoritative opinion on the snuff bottle in question, but I am and I will in respect to dealing and the antics that dealers use to sell an object.

In reference to the comment "In a question to the seller it apparently was collected around the 1960's and belonged to a Danish doctor that immigrated to the US", What a load of old dribble. Whether you collect snuff bottles, paintings, ceramics or whatever, please, please, take with a pinch of salt what a dealer says about the items history, unless it has some form of verifiable concrete written provenance to back up what is said.

I know a dealer who regularly puts items on ebay and blatantly gives them a totally false provenance. He will buy an item at auction and within a week put it on ebay stating something like it was his grandmothers' and she apparently acquired it from a large country house over 50 years ago. I've even known him to sell modern Australian tourists pieces saying his mother purchased it when she went to Australia on holiday 50 years ago, needless to say she had never even had a holiday abroad let alone to Australia. When I challenge him on his antics he just laughs at me saying someone will believe it.

I know many dealers at the fairs who brag about the false stories they tell to sell an object.

Even at auction they do it. They will say something on the lines of "supposedly from, possibly a, reportedly being a, from a very old family so it should be okey, and so on.
I have been going to auctions for longer than I care to remember, it has always gone on and quite honestly, it is all nonsense and you have to treat it with the respect it deserves, none.

I recently purchased a piece of Jade from an auction after obtaining a condition report and purchased it over the phone without handling it, simply going by the photograph. When it arrived I carried out certain checks on it confirming it was not jade, Nephrite or Jadeite. I contacted the auctioneer and explained that the description was wrong and to his credit he accepted my evaluation of the piece and offered a full refund. What was interesting was that he told me he was surprised it was wrong because it came from a good seller. This is a good example of how auctioneers will go on what a seller says it is,hoping for the best, because in many cases they simply do not know.

Joey's recent quotation "Respect but suspect" cannot be bettered. Respect an object for what it is, the age, beauty, quality, rarity, price etc., but always suspect anything that is said to aid its sale.

Provenance, true provenance is worth its weight in gold, but it has to be undeniable.

Kind regards to you all,

Paul