Teasing the Crane in the Tang Collection?

Dear Steven,

Thank you for taking the time to do the analysis.

This always was a case of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Your strongest argument is that DEZ would not paint the exact same scenes with the exact same calligraphy. That makes the most sense to me.

However, looking at the calligraphy - it's so close that it doesn't make as compelling an argument to me. I know if I write the same sentence twice that it never looks exactly the same. To me, and I preface this with I'm not a handwriting analyst, there are more things alike in the calligraphy than different. But you have the advantage that you know the language, so I am looking at symbols whereas you are looking at letters. So I will concede on this point as well, but think that it would benefit from further study.

On the tree leaves, the main differences appear to be the lack of outlines on the leaf edges and the shape of the leaves. My bottle's leaves have an ovate shape - whereas on the Bonhams bottle they are lobed.
On the lily-pads, the outlines are also missing, and on my bottle (since the cork was in it) I think that some smudging has happened there.
Minor differences like these continue to the landscape, but none of them are especially compelling arguments to me - again these are areas where it appears there are more things alike than different - which shows a great deal of skill on the part of the artist.

There is still the question of when it was painted.

Looking at the paint under magnification it shows degradation and fading that I only see in my bottles painted by middle period artists, and trust me I have plenty of fakes to compare it to. I don't know how it is possible to age a painting like this - where the paint has degraded and faded, so it's either old or there are new faking techniques available that I don't know about. Please elaborate if you know.

The absolute best thing would be for it to be examined in person.