Fake antique porcelain items made in China are currently flooding the world (and China itself too).
Unsuspecting buyers everywhere purchase these items. The expert
recognizes many of them easily as fake, but high-level fakes sometimes
are difficult to recognize even by specialists.
It has gone so far that the fake antiques sometimes are accompanied by a fake certificate to indicate authenticity. This is in no way limited to porcelain or antiques, anything that brings a profit is copied and sold as an original or antique item. |
You should wonder how they can export so many antiques under these circumstances, today. The answer is really very obvious:
While a few genuine antiques may still slip through customs, the bulk is just newer reproductions and fakes. Look at the websites claiming they make or export antiques. Would you believe...?
Nice to know that supply will never end!
This not meant toward a specific seller -- just... we need to be careful all the time nowadays when it comes to Chinese antiques of any type.
At the beginning, a number of years ago, I heard importers in Taiwan recount how they were still
available to ship out in containers, but since about 3 years ago the
flow has virtually dried out. This has had consequences. Many antique
buyers consider now items that were made in Taiwan, or vintage items from
China, that were hand-made, acceptable for collecting. This in turn has
not only lead to a rise in prices of locally made or sold vintage and antique
items, even quality items of non-Chinese origin are getting now rare, because the collectors were forced to shift their interests by the unavailability of Chinese antiques. In the last year or two there has been an acceleration of antique
dealers going out of business because they cannot get any items anymore.
Due to the ongoing desire for antiques in China, the flow is now
reversed. The Chinese antiques either are bought abroad, or they are
directly exported to China by dealers abroad. The antiques exported
originally from China are now flowing back to China.
We need to be careful even with Ebay dealers we have known for years. It
is always the same story. Originally they dealers had good sources of
real
antiques, but as China shut off the outflow of
antiques, they started obtaining doubtful wares from doubtful sources.
(They need to make a living, so they often do not care, or it is more
convenient not to care if the items are authentic.)
Much of what is now on the market, both here and in other places, are now made more recently.
We need to pay attention to the white-washing (or laundering) of fake
antiques, giving them some status through repeated sales via known dealers or
auction houses.
Once they get provenance from these, it is generally accepted that the antiques are authentic.
Occasionally I watch an Antiques Roadshow type TV program from China
online. In that specific program several of the experts are well-known
museum researchers. Repeatedly have I heard the specialist for porcelain
say that a "specific item that was presented would be considered
authentic by western auction houses, while they do not think it is..."
Go from Fake Antique Porcelain to Porcelain Reproductions
Go to Porcelain Age Faking Methods
About the fake antiquetrade
Fake antiques - and why people buy them
Buying tips for beginning a collection