IDENTIFYING VINTAGE ORIENTAL CLOISONNE

IDENTIFY [[[]]] CLOISONNE

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NEW OPTION AVAILABLE:

Personal email evaluation for $5.00US, see CONTACT page

1960s Chinese Export Items

[[[]]] Welcome to my website idcloisonne.com :

It is designed to answer your basic questions about Chinese and Japanese cloisonne: what is it and how old is it? These answers should help you figure out the value. Specifically, we will cover the identification of Oriental (Far-East) JAPANESE and CHINESE decorative, or 'free-standing' cloisonne pieces, covering the 1850 to 1950 century of production, by a visual identification method, using actual item photos and description.
This site is your first step in identifying your Oriental cloisonne items. If you think that what you have in hand is a rare and valuable piece of cloisonne, I would recommend you approach experts in this field in your area, and have a formal appraisal done. An English gentleman sold an antique Chinese cloisonne vase for $30,000. after contacting me.
For personal evaluations: please email your images at contactlisa@idcloisonne.com AFTER a small funding payment of $5.00US to my Paypal account to be linked on my FUNDING page. I will respond with a 50 word description, dating information, country of production, a range in value, and any other available and pertinent information. This will not be a formal appraisal, but will help you identify and value your cloisonne item.
IN A HURRY?: Use the QUICK CHECK page for identifying the most common type of cloisonne pieces, vases, jars and boxes.

Values:
     The highest prices on the market are for great quality Chinese antique and vintage cloisonne pieces, and antique signed Japanese masterpieces, both rare, most of which are unavailable, either owned by collectors already, or displayed in museums. Some of these items, damaged, yet still appealing can be found easily enough on the internet auction sites.
     There was and is much more Chinese mass-produced cloisonne items than Japanese, 'supply and demand' dictates that Japanese cloisonne will usually fetch more. On the other hand, Chinese enamelware and cloisonne values are skyrocketing, due to China's and other Asian countries newly found interest in these old exports.
     Most of the vintage cloisonne items found at estate sales, flea markets, the internet and live auctions are the unmarked, mass produced, Chinese and Japanese cloisonne items, exported during the early part of the 20th century, and the many post 1950s machine-made (assembly line manufacture) cloisonne pieces.
    Up to 1950, there was room for innovation and creativity by the Chinese and Japanese cloisonne craftsmen. There are some rare, completely hand crafted, unexpected treasures still available from that period, those pieces are the most sought after by the keen cloisonne collector (including me).
    I will no longer quote values, as these have become extremely unpredictable. Some internet sellers sell pieces four to five times what the piece is worth, others do the opposite because they do not realise what they have in hand. The other extreme is modern cloisonne items sold by reputable auction houses, listed as very valuable vintage or antique objects when they should know better. The best way to find out for yourself, is using Ebay or the LiveAuctioneer sites: go to the completed auctions or archives for an idea about what the real sale value range might be right now for your piece.

DO NOT TRUST the vendor to be accurate:
That statement may sound harsh, in light of the increasing sophistication of sellers regarding Oriental antique exports. Buyers should still investigate before investing in a piece of cloisonne (caveat emptor or buyer beware), especially if the value is over $150.00.
If the piece is one that will continue to delight you, no matter what, then, that is certainly the most important factor when acquiring cloisonne. Remember that a damaged piece should be worth 10% to 25% of the same undamaged one, unless extremely rare.

Collection Mixed Cloisonne

DISCLAIMER:
    Sorting out every Oriental cloisonne piece is a difficult and complex process, with many challenges and pitfalls. The available reference material (books), that should help with this venture are themselves at odds with each other sometimes. Each author/collector/researcher adding a mix of subjective and objective opinions and guesses, with other information garnered from various sources (not necessarily irrefutable), and previous author's publications on this subject.
    How can anyone else be able to correctly, and consistently identify Oriental cloisonne and date it accurately?  It's impossible. There are a few sources of data from the countries involved: China and Japan. As with most knowledge, the longer the time frame, the less reliable the second and third hand witness accounts are.
     Most of the cloisonne items produced there, were considered a secondary craft export product, designed to please Westerners, with their inferior tastes and not meant for local commerce. It was a lucrative endeavor, viewed not as an art form, nor as treasured national masterpieces, except for the short 30 plus year period of Japanese golden age cloisonne, from 1880 to 1910 or so. It is only in the last decade that Japan and China have finally taken a second look at these exports and become interested in their history, creation and value. Establishing new collections and exhibits in their own country's museums.
     Here, I have tried to combine what is known absolutely, for the very specific period of 1850 to 1950. This does leave many unanswered questions. What I am saying is that all information provided here is meant to be accurate, but may not help your particular needs. There is much more about Oriental cloisonne that is not known yet, or covered on this site. My aim is to cater to most site visitors with interesting and helpful information, for both the experienced collector and the cloisonne amateur.
[[[]]]  copyright 2010
      Any website content that is original content as found here, is automatically protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. My website information is not available to be copied or used by anyone, unless I have given specific permission to do so. I'm aware of the 'fair use' exceptions.
   As this 'free' site and it's innovative content represent much hands-on knowledge, years of research, with unique images (acquired with permission or owned by me), any type of usage by other parties devalues the site, and is not FAIR. I will be adding my site tag in the middle of cloisonne mark images, to discourage unlawful copying.