| Original Message: Re: Good Question: cachet of repair |
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In some cultures a repair only bespeaks the history of an item, part of which can be what Jamey described as "so dear to its owner that it could not be tossed out." Perhaps this seems inexplicable concerning beads, when presumed to be plentiful and disposable. However as we have seen with dZi beads, some items have more mystique about them than their true history of manufacture and origins would suggest. The matter of dZi beads may be an example of how owners, when remote from the place of manufacture, may be unaware of how they were made and invest objects with symbolic, mythological or spiritual features. For those who have hundreds or thousands of beads, it may not be apparent that certain types may be prized for specific historic or cultural reasons--or simply because one may have been a gift from a person with cultural or family power. In Japan a mysterious lot of social and spiritual values are invested in certain ceramics and other objects associated with rather esoteric elements of culture and history. An object such as a 17th-century dish may accumulate a cachet of being a 'masterpiece' up to the time of the connoisseurship of the 1960s, until archaeological and other discoveries disclosed that what was rare in Japan was a lot more common elsewhere because it was mass-produced for export beginning in the 1660s. There are still some who hold to the old 'connoisseurship', which has become almost a social institution in itself. I exhibit here the mouth of a 14th-century Chinese black-glazed bottle which was repaired with gold lacquer in Japan. Gold lacquer was commonly used to repair old items, without pretense of concealing damage. Even more, such a repair bespoke an owner's opinion of the item and did add to its social value as in Jamey's phrase. Where 'face' has a large social role, many persons seek to accumulate elements of reputation similar to the concept of how karma may be increased. It may be necessary to know a lot more about an object's prior social context to understand how an obvious repair may figure in a perception of value unrelated to a specific market price. Regards, Jadeterrace All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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