| Original Message: China Gets Into The Act |
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Earlier this year, while I was bopping around with Alice Scherer, here in Santa Rosa, and we had gone to Legendary Beads to visit Joyce, I happened upon this new piece that I thought was rather well-made, for what it is, and very reasonably priced. So I bought it for my specimen collection. In recent years, Chinese manufacturers have not only made new knock-offs of earlier East Asian pieces, but have begun to copy nearly everything you can imagine. Over the past three years, we have seen them go with Venetian-style millefiori and chevron beads with a vengence. I have been intrigued by white metal copies of various regional/ethnic beads (that are or were silver or silver-gilt in earlier times)—including stuff that is patterned after Tibetan and Afghan items. So, when I saw this white metal pendant, set with a glass "stone" imitating a carnelian intaglio depicting a horse (not very different from a seal image), I thought is was rather cunning and collectible. We see it here enlarged, and with the intaglio enlarged to show detail. In the past, similar work would have been done in Afghanistan, using stones from India. And a carnelian would typically be more orange than this, but reddish stones are known as well. As near as I can tell, the design has been rendered by hand, and is not molded into the glass. The recesses are also covered by a dark substance that looks more or less like paint. (The Czechs did this a lot with molded items.) I imagine the tool may have been something like an electric engraver, such as jewelers use to sign pieces or add decorator initials. ("Your initials or greeting carved right onto the piece!") Or it may just be a flex-shaft appliance. Anyway, China is a force to be reckoned in the jewelry world. In a few years, no one will know where anything really comes from. Many people are already unaware of origins, or whether an item is precious metal or base metal, handmade or not—and they don't seem to care. Or, if they understand that a piece is Chinese, it won't matter that it's not Afghan, or Tibetan, or Amercian Indian—or whatever it used to be. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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