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OK Chinese porcelain experts, here's one for you: Good quality mark, good enamel colors, good drawing, high quality porcelain with no iron spots or other flaws, and fine paste. The only condition issues are rubbing of the gold on the rim and a small area of enamel rubbing near the base. I want to know if you think it's period or not, and if not what are the things that stand against it.

PS: It came out of an old estate (not from e***) so I know it's at least early 20th c and is not a modern fake.

Genuine enamel porcelain! Not fake anything!

Realize Chinese make fine porcelain more 600-year, think 1920s-1930s not 'modern'?

Can find better-poorer quality any date make.

Good luck,
Cal

The vase is in Republic style but the colors of the enamel looks strange for Republic period especially the two handles. I often see this mistake in modern pieces.

Hi Robert,
I notice that you often mention your items coming from an "old estate", and in this case "not from e***".
Further, you added: "so I know it's at least early 20th c and is not a modern fake".
(Because someone told you it was an old estate?)

From these statements I take it that you prefer to shop at estate sales, over shopping online at e***?
Just curious why you are so trusting of estate sales?

Did you mean that someone you know passed away, and that you bought something at an estate sale of his possessions?

Or that you only go to estate sales which are advertised as being "old estates"?

I sold antiques for over twenty years, and had several customers who were in the estate sale business.
This can be roughly translated as meaning they are antique shop, without the shop.

Your family may hire an estate sale company to hold an estate sale of your possessions when you die. But who are you?
If you were not well known, your possessions are basically used stuff, especially if you didn't have anything which was necessarily valuable.

This is one place where the estate sale company earns their pay, they will embellish whatever you had with stories of your purchasing prowess while on extended stays in the orient, or perhaps while stationed in Europe after the war, etc, etc.

And what if you didn't have enough stuff to hold an estate sale? No worries, the company will bring in some of their own stuff to fill it out and make it a grand event, of course giving you posthumous credit for being a collector extraordinaire, a connoisseur of the arts, and a true renaissance man.
Therefore, even if the deceased was a collector, that does not mean everything offerred in the sale belonged to him.

And what if the second-hand stuff which was the bulk of your legacy, failed to sell at the prices that the estate sale company convinced your family to price your objects?

Rest in peace, because even though they have charged your grieving loved ones a set fee to hold the estate sale of your possessions(along with their own goods), they will be kind enough to purchase the remainder of your "estate" for pennies on the dollar, and "cash out" your family, allowing them closure(and providing new stock for the estate sale company to "flesh out" someone else's estate).

And what happens if no one dies, and the estate sale company doesn't have any customers?
No problem, they merely borrow someone's house, rent a vacant house, or perhaps rent out the Moose hall. The deceased may then be the name of an old boy/girl friend, a high school teacher, or someone who's name was picked at random or otherwise made up.

The same estate sale companies will often have booths at flea markets or in "antique shows" at your local mall.

It is of course possible to make a great find at an estate sale, however if the deceased had something which was unusual, collectible, and/or authentic, the estate sale company will not only price that object, they will see to it that it is sold to the appropriate buyer (wink-wink). You basically have the wolf in-charge of the chicken-coop.

As for the majority of the items at any estate sale, the most likely scenario is there will be a posted caveat that regardless of the descriptions and valuations of the sale items provided by the estate sale company, or the recollections of grieving family members (which will seldom be on hand), it will be up to the buyer to decide the value of their purchases, and whether or not the descriptions provided are accurate.
And of course,...All Sales Are Final.

Just as with the e*** auctions, or any auctions for that matter, when at an estate sale, remember the old saying "caveat emptor" (Let the buyer beware), and also the old antiquer saying which is "How do you know when an estate salesperson is lying?...When their lips are moving."

Of course, as long as you like what you bought, and are comfortable with the price you paid, you can't go wrong.
At least until you try to sell something based on the sales pitch by which you bought it, rather than by the objects' actual value.

Sorry to rain on the "old estate" parade, but if you will be paying a high price for anything based on a description like that, you may set yourself up for some grim realizations in the future.

Happy hunting!
Cheers
Gman

Sorry Robert but this vase is a modern reproduction. I echo what Gman has said. Fakes are also easily found in estate sales these days; whether purchased by the deceased or even "seeded" by the estate sale companies. You can bet that if there are good items in any estate, the estate sellers will already have contacted people on their special list. A good estate will usually have a preview for these people before it's opened to the general public.

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