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Subject:Chinese Bronze Fake or No?
Posted By: Michael Sun, Apr 09, 2006 IP: 65.245.149.214

This vase is interesting and has a bit of a story to it. The vase is 9 inches tall.

In my travels I found this vase in an antique mall booth in a part of the USA where many Christian Missionaries settled after they left China during the Boxer Rebellion. In this booth there were no other Asian items at all. The price tag was labeled "Brass Vase with Arab Marks $5.00"

Unfortuneately, the person selling this cleaned the base with sandpaper. This exposed the markings which I believe are Bronzeware Script.

Part of the interior of the neck has a very tight spiral line near the top, as if when making the casting they wrapped a thin string around the core.

In the picture here of the top you can see that there is what appears to be black tar, or pitch, that has melted and now adheres to one wall of the body quite thick and when melted it ran towards the top of the neck; when the tar melted the vase was laying on it's side.

The finish is mottled and perhaps gilded too. It is hard to tell. The overall appearance is of great age but as though it has not been buried.

I will consider this to be a fake until I learn otherwise. If it is indeed a fake there was a lot of work put into making it with all of the details.

As always, your impressions are most welcome. Thank you.









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