Message #7451

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Tom,
   I'm based in Jerusalem, Israel most of the year, but spend each summer in my late Georgian home in north County Wexford, Ireland.  This winter, for the first time in almost 6 years, I'll be spending a couple of months during the winter, in a rented beach house on Lanikai beach on windward Oahu, Hawaii.

   I don't know how much you know about forgers, but nothing that will sell a fake is "against the grain". Ask Steven re. the group of B&W porcelain SBs ostensibly fired and fused together in a kiln mishap. George posted it, and we figured out it must be a fake, made to fool a collector. 

  Yes, I compared it myself to white nephrite jade and inkstone (duanstone) examples, though they invariably had pairs of flanking archaistic dragons, whereas this example is asymmetrical in design. I agree that it looks 'right' insofar as one can judge from an internet image.

  Your thesis as to the wood examples being 'trial runs' before the object was produced in expensive materials, sounds interesting, although I wonder whether apprentices would be given work that could form the basis for objects to be made in "more valuable materials".

  Anyway, an interesting thesis. I don't know if I can concur before some serious contemplation is attempted; I'll have to sleep on it. 

Best,
 Joey