Jill ( Guo Jie) / XG Arts 2011 Catalogue now published

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi All

THE  premier   dealer  in VM  IPBs  is  Jill  (  Guo  Jie)   @  XG Arts  Beijing

email  :    jill@263.net.cn

I have  now  known  Jill   and  her  husband  Li Hui  ( previous   senior  student  of  Liu  Shouben)  for   over  3  years
Jill  has a  beautiful  little   shop  in one of the   BJ  curio/ antique-city  buildings  in BJ,    and  she  is now   setting  up a new   shop in Jiangsu,  where  there   are  a lot  of  rich  local  collectors

Jill and  Li Hui  join all the   ICSBS  annual conventions  (  thus they will go to  Florida  this  October)  and they   publish a  catalogue  1  - 2  x  per  year,

In 2011 Jill  will only publish one   catalogue  which is  now  out,   and  MAN...  !  it's  their  best  ever, both  in  terms of  presentation    skills, but more  important  - in terms  of   the   quality  of the  bottles  they  have  bought  from  Hengshui  leading artists .

I got a  preview  of the  collection   in Jill's  shop  a couple  of  months  ago   and  immediately  snapped  up a   few   really  beautiful  Chinese  landscapes  ( my  prime  collecting theme)    and I notice that  in the  price  list   several other  bottles  are also  listed  as "sold"  besides the  ones  I bought. 

There's  another   dozen bottles  I  have  my eye  on  as  well, so I could  end  up    spending  over  US$10K, which  would  be  almost my  entire  year's   spending allowance    for  IPBs 

Jill's  prices    seem to be  pretty  much  par  for the  course :   certainly    on the  high side  compared to  2  -3  years  ago,  but  no new  inflation   splurge,   so most bottles  are  in the  US$1 - 2K range, and  at those  prices  they  are  well   worth  the  money.  You  will  not  get  bottles  of  that quality  much  cheaper  even  direct  from artists  unless  you  have a   very   long-standing  relationship  with the   artist  ( and even then  US$1K  is    minimum  nowdays  for  any good   VM  IPB )

You can   write to  Jill  at the   above  email  address  for a   hard  copy  of  her   cataloge  and to be  put  on her  mailing list.  In due  course  Jill will  send  Bill  Patrick  a  soft  copy   so it  will  appear  on his   website  , and  also  in  the  next  update  of my  data-base

In case  you  are  wondering  ( which I am sure  you  are)   how much  Jill  makes  on these  bottles  as a dealer  :  I have   done   quite a  bit  of   personal  research  as  to  what  it  would  cost  to   go regularly to  Hengshui,  finance and  buy  up  a  100  - 200 bottles,  rent a  shop in BJ, publish a  catalogue    1- 2  x  per  year,  and  attend   exhibitions and  ICSBS  conventions  in the   West   and   adding all that  together , and  allowing for the   typical   small   discount  Jill   gives   regular  customers,  I reckon  Jill does  not  clear  more  than  10%  net   on average.  Which  is  pretty  much  par   for the   course  for   any    such  "speciality"  trader in BJ   where  business  is  small  volume, erratic and  never  guaranteed.  ( For   regular high-volume   business   5 %  is  OK ) 

So what  I am saying  is that :  in terms  of  value  for  money, short  of  going to  Hengshui  yourself  and  meeting  artists, and  also  investing the   1-2  hours/day I  spend  on-line   chatting   with  artists  (in  Chinese),   you   will not  get a  better  deal than   via  Jill .  And  of  course  provenance  is  guaranteed.

Cheers  Peter

PS  :  I   also  advise  to get on to  David  Osborne's   weekly  auction   e-mail  list .  I have  picked   up some  AMAZING  bottles  from David   in the  past   few months   

[George]

Finaly something new posted !! 

Thanks for sharing this with us Peter.

What a plunge you took.. Spending an entire years bottle allowance ! 

Is there a cost for Jill's catalog ?

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi George

Jill's  catalogue  is free .  You just need to  get onto  her mailing list

Cheers  Peter

PS  :    PART  of my  years   IPB  buying allowance .... and I  did not  say  which  year   

[fletchristian]

How do you get on to this mailing list and how do you get dave osborne ac. sight?fletcher @ fletchristian@YAHOO.COM.

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Jill ( Guo  Jie )  :  jill@263.net.cn

David  Osborne :  d.jill@shaw.ca

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

I  forgot  to  mention  one  thing:

Prices  in Jill's  catalogues   are   based  on what the   artists  themselves  decide
Jill  does  not  buy /   sell  /  speculate

She  just  takes  a   fair  commission  ( and  I assure  you  it  is  very    low, based  on what  she   does by way  of  promotion )    if/ when a  bottle  sells  at the  artist's  asking price.  If    a  bottle  is  not   sold  it  goes  back to the   artist


Cheers   Peter

[George]

Jill said she was going to send me one, but never arrived..

I just sent her another email..

Looking forward to seeing it !

[George]

Got miine today !!

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  George

Great  !  ( but  I  already  snapped  up the  best  landscapes  -  sorry -la    )

Cheers Peter

[George]

Ah.. I bet I know which one it is too !

I am still looking through it trying to decide upon a couple of favorite artists..

Ya know... I really think that 90% of the bottles are priced a-ok..  Expensive, yes.. , but really nice paintings..

[rpfstoneman]

If interested in any bottles from one Jill's IPBs Catalogs, get on her mailing list, and recommend to make purchases early.  This catalog was out in advance of the Snuff Bottle Convention in Florida in October.  I recall receiving mine about the 1st half of October.  Many of the bottles were sold prior to the event.  I did not see a whole lot them at Jill's dealers display at the convention this year.  She seems to always be turning over the inventory rather quickly once the publication is out from my impression.  In the pass she has been willing to email photo's and prices of bottles in her current inventory upon request.  Very gracious person and always helpful with information. 

And Peter, she did do a great job with her presentation at the convention.  Just did not have enough time to digest all the photos of the artists she presented.  She had about an hour and it could have easily kept me captivated for two or more.

Charll   

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi   Charll

I am  now in  Shanghai  and   today   fly  to   BJ  and  will  have   dinner  tonight  (  HOT  POT  !)    with   Jill  and  Li  Hui

I  worked  long  and  very  hard  to   perfect   Jill's  Palm Beach  presentation   English  version :    her  husband  Li  Hui   wrote    the   text   and  it  delved  into   truly  archaic  Chinese  :  very   VERY   hard   to  translate,  but  in the  process  I  learned  SO  much  more    about  this  whole  Very-Modern  -  IPB  field.   

But  I  have   yet  to see  the  pics  attached   to  Jill's  presentation     :  I  only  saw  the   text

There  is  so  much  going  on  in the  VMIPB   collecting  field   that  I  often feel  I  will   explode .

Step by  small   step  we  are  going  forward.   This   Forum  is  an   example  ....   gradually  new  members  are  joining,  each  with  their  own  particular  slant  (  which  is  GREAT  !   Every   slant  is  great )

And  now  the  ICSBS  Journal  is  bi-lingual  :  English / Chinese 

All  are    "Baby  steps"    (  did  you  ever  see  the   film?)  ....

But  babies   grow  up

I  sometimes    write     utter   rubbish  on this   forum  when  I  am  extremely  emotional   ( which  these  days  I  often  am)

But  I  hope   that   what  I  have  in my  heart  comes  through

Send  me  your   address  by  personal  email  (  you  can  find  my  personal  email  if  you  delve  into the   Forum)  and  I  will  send  you  a  USB  stick  crammed   with  everything  I  have

AND  TO  ANYONE   ELSE  LISTENING  ;   THE  SAME  OFFER   HOLDS   TRUE   FOR  YOUR  ALL.   16  GB  of  stuff  !

Cheers,  Peter.

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  again  Charll, All

Jill was   putting the   finishing  touches  to  her  2011  catalogue   just before   she  left  to  the  USA. I  did  a  bit  of   final polishing of the  english   the  night  before it  went to the  printer.

She  collects the  bottles  over a  period  of a few months  ( actually  he  husband  Li  Hui / ex  Liu  Shouben    student)    does  most  of the  collecting   by  going to  Hengshui and  Zibo  for a  week  or   two  at  time.   When   Jill  has  enough  bottles  she  publishes  a  catalogue  -  in the  past there  were  2  per   year,  but this   year  only  one  : and it's  by  far the  most  professional and   well-printed  one  so far.

But  what  happens  is that  collectors  (like  me)  call to  visit  her   shop and   snap  up the  bottles  they  like   before the   catalogue  is  ever  published .  Thus  I  bought  3 or   4   from her  2011  catalogue

There's a  slight  problem   with  ordering from the   catalogue  in that   some bottles  look  better  in real  life   than   the  pics  in the   catalogue  and     other  bottles  look  better    in the  catalogue than  in  real  life.  But  I  think that's the same   with  all  IPBs  -  they  are so hard to  photograph.

Cheers  Peter

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Hi, This is Joseph Baruch Silver ( Joey to my friends).
   I bought a really nice bottle by Xiao Binghang from Jill (#180 in her 2011 Catalogue), and it was very reasonable. My two favourite subjects are landscapes and fish  swimming. I didn't see any landscapes I couldn't live without, indeed.
   In Israel we have a saying,"Rishon zocheh, shani bocheh" (First wins, second cries). I can never beat collectors in Beijing or who get to BJ regularly, to top quality new bottles, since I live in Jerusalem most of the year, and in Ireland during the summer.     
   However, I can't complain - I have been collecting since Feb.1970 (I started at 13!), and have over 150 early and middle school bottles (6 Ding Erzhong; 5 Yu Shuyun (out of 8 known - other three were in the Bloch; anyone know of this middle school artist's work outside of these 8?); 25 Zhou Leyuan; 22 Ma Shaoxuan; 29 Ye Zhongsan (Elder & Ye family); 10 Yan Yutian; and small groups (4-9) of  Gan Xuanwen, Ma Shaoxian, Zhang Baotian, Gui Xianggu, Chen Zhongsan, Bi Rongjiu,  Meng Zishou,  Sun Xingwu; and one or two examples of artists like Jichuan, Zhu Zhanyuan, Li Shaocheng, Tang Zichuan, Bai Langchen, Bi Baosun.  I also have modern bottles: 14 Wang Xisan; 5 Liu Shouben; 6 Li Kechang;  a few Chen Renpu; 36 Su Fengyi; a group of 10 Cultural Revolution bottles; and a couple or so of examples of 7 or 8 artists Guo Jie (Jill) has supplied me.
 I also met Liu Yizi at the 2001 Houston convention and bought 9 bottles of his, and a few of his students'.  I'm recataloguing my whole collection right now, and I am rediscovering bottles I'd forgotten about. It is like acquiring them all over again! At much lower monetary cost, of course! ;-) .
  By the way, Jill was great about helping me get padded boxes for organising my collection, and stoppers, corks and spoons (the latter for my collections of white nephrite jades (53) and blue and white porcelains (137), as well as the 25 or 30 bottles of assorted materials I kept when I sold most of my collection to focus on Blue & Whites and  Inside Painteds [and have cash to restore the 200 yr old house I'd bought in Ireland in 1989 ;-) ].).
  I've not yet succeeded in learning to navigate this site, and I'm very impressed with it and the info I've succeeded in getting, but I have one question: Why is it on a black background?  White script on black is much harder on the eyes, and causes much more eyestrain, than black script on white. Is it possible for me to push a button and have it reverse?
Best Wishes to all, and I look forward to learning and sharing with you all.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Si Zhouyi (Joey Silver)
   

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Hi Joey

Again a warm welcome and very happy to have you amongst us here.  I am a great admirer of your publication/book, it helped me open my eyes about IPB although I was not able to get my own copy until very recently (not so many around for some reason, at least that is my experience).  I am just in awe of the mere statistics you list below.  Awesome... hope to learn from you and interact with you.

[George]

White script on black is much harder on the eyes, and causes much more eyestrain, than black script on white. Is it possible for me to push a button and have it reverse?

   

Let me work on that for you.. Will take me some time to create a secondary theme option..

Will let you know as soon as possible.. Pretty sure can figure something out..

I am looking at your #180 in Jill's catalogue... It is a beautiful rock crystal and wonderful fish painting !

I notice Peter mentions a book you published..  Would like to learn more about it 

What an outstanding group of Early and Middle Period bottles you have in your collection too !!

[Pat - 查尚杰]

George: Peter/Pat... not same lol  ....

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Joey

Wow  !    What a  collection !

Are  you  the   Joe  Silver  of  book fame ?

If  so,   double   wow!

Great to  have  you  on the   forum  ( and  BTW  I   agree that  the   white  on black  is  hard  on the   eyes)

Also  great  that  you know  Jill :  she  and  Li Hui  are  best   friends  of  me  and my wife

If  you send  me  your   address  by private email  (   my email    address  is  on  the   forum)  I  will send  you my  modern  artist  data base  on  USB stick

Cheers   Peter  @  Hong  Kong (  Beijing,  Shanghai,  .....  wherever  in China)

[Steven]

Wow, Wow , Wow!!!!!

I am looking forward to reading your book,( please let me know where can I buy it:)

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

I  think I have about 40 copies of 'The World in a Bottle' which I'd be happy to give away if people will pay the packing & postage from Ireland (the cost of the mailing envelope and the postage, book rate/airmail/EMS ; I'll send them myself). I wanted the bottle and the painting with the same subject, on facing pages; Tibor Franyo, a friend who worked for the HAA at the time, screwed it up because he thought he knew better. I'm happy to give them away.
  For 'Worlds in a Bottle',  I could supply 20 or so, at US$50 plus shipping from Ireland (they are in Ireland; I only return there in May). The original cost to produce the book, which is hardcover with a dustjacket, documents 95 snuff bottles, 26 hanging scrolls, 2 handscrolls, 14 fan paintings, 14 album leaves, 4 paintings, 3 photographs, and 4 other complementary items, all but one in full colour, was US$65.  
  If people want to pick them up in Ireland, they'll be free (And, they can see my Blue & Whites , my Jades, and about 25 assorted others, mainly Palace workshops.).  My Inside Painted collection, about 200+, are in Israel. I love showing them to people who have an interest (I didn't show Charll's wife, son and mother-in-law more than 20 or 30 when they visited me in , so I'd not bore them to tears).
   2 weeks ago, I showed a selection of 12 bottles and 11 scrolls to a group of 27 at a fundraiser at my home - they donate to a charity as a group, and organise interesting visits as a come-on. I served tea, coffee, baklava and rogelach (Arab and Jewish sweet pastries!), and gave a 70 min. talk. It was well received. But people who know what they are looking at, are much more fun to look at bottles with.
  As well, I have a book written by Robert Kleiner, of my Blue & White Porcelain snuff bottles, 'In Search of a Dragon'. It illustrates 110 of my bottles, with 1 loaned by friends in the UK.
   I just checked - you've 80 members. Impressive!. Best Wishes. Joey