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Post by johnw on Jan 3, 2019 2:32:57 GMT -5
This falls under my previous thread title being "Creations by any other means, are still Creations" These figures I did not craft but discovered them in Harbin in Northern China in an antiques shop. What is depicted are ladies in traditional Qing Dynasty clothes playing traditional instruments of the time. Each figure is made out of local porcelain clay, sculptured, kiln fired, painted and then glazed. I present these as an opportunity for any of the members or their spouses who may also craft in clay to see what can be done in miniature, being each piece is less than two inches inch heigh and about one inch in diameter. There are several pictures. Here is an overall gathering of the Orchestra in a typical Chinese setting.
 A closer look at the group.  Shown now are the players, starting at the bottom and working clockwise.  Xylophone player  Pan Pipe player  Lyre type instrument player  Zither player. Whoever made this certainly captured the hand movement  Flute player  Horn player. Lost an eye.  Another type of Zither/Violin player, looks like a guitar. This lady also lost an eye.  Here they are all gathered on the Dias. If you listen carefully you can hear the music. Chinese music is typically tinny in nature. The detail is great, particularly the facial features and the hands. The pieces are over two hundred years old and some of the ladies, as you can see, have lost one eye. Well, that's it, hope you enjoyed the show. Thanks for watching. Cheers, johnw |
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Post by miket on Jan 3, 2019 10:24:53 GMT -5
Very cool, John. Over two hundred years old, wow! Those ladies don't look a day over 150.  |
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Post by johnw on Jan 3, 2019 12:08:34 GMT -5
Very cool, John. Over two hundred years old, wow! Those ladies don't look a day over 150. Thank you mike, yeah, I told 'em I was going to display them on RTH as an inspiration for anyone doing work in clay and all the more so being because they were all over 200 years old and the youngest, the pan pipe player, advised me in Mandarin, she was only 160 and flipped me off in the Italian style of "ah fungula'" from the elbow. After spending over 20+ years in China it was the first time I had ever seen such a gesture. The notion of using the bird is not known in China. Cheers, johnw |
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Post by miket on Jan 3, 2019 12:32:11 GMT -5
Very cool, John. Over two hundred years old, wow! Those ladies don't look a day over 150. Thank you mike, yeah, I told 'em I was going to display them on RTH as an inspiration for anyone doing work in clay and all the more so being because they were all over 200 years old and the youngest, the pan pipe player, advised me in Mandarin, she was only 160 and flipped me off in the Italian style of "ah fungula'" from the elbow. After spending over 20+ years in China it was the first time I had ever seen such a gesture. The notion of using the bird is not known in China. Cheers, johnw  |
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Post by accidentalrockhound on Jan 4, 2019 8:53:50 GMT -5
johnw the group is great. I agree the action of their movement is outstanding. That is one thing that fascinates me about antiques. Their Meir existence in a time and world so different at their time. One can only imagine. After reading some of your threads. Yesterday I came across a pair of silk embroidered pictures. They caught my eye because your thread thanks. They look to be older then I thought originally. I'm thinking about opening the backs up to see if there is any evidence of age. The picture's are of a man and a woman both holding umbrella in the rain.
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Post by Pat on Jan 4, 2019 10:01:10 GMT -5
Cool! How were the eyes lost? Did they fall out, or were they sculpted that way?
What's the story behind the emphasized eyebrows?
Thanks for the show.
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Post by johnw on Jan 4, 2019 12:28:19 GMT -5
johnw the group is great. I agree the action of their movement is outstanding. That is one thing that fascinates me about antiques. Their Meir existence in a time and world so different at their time. One can only imagine. After reading some of your threads. Yesterday I came across a pair of silk embroidered pictures. They caught my eye because your thread thanks. They look to be older then I thought originally. I'm thinking about opening the backs up to see if there is any evidence of age. The picture's are of a man and a woman both holding umbrella in the rain. Hello and good morning to you accidentalrockhound. Thank you for your observations and kind words. Yes they are indeed fascinating, small, but nonetheless fascinating. The whole concept of such a small group is what attracted me. I was in Harbin in Heilianjiang Province at the time for the Ice Festival they hold at this time of year. You wanna see something really spectacular Google "Harbin Ice Festival, it's mind blowing, you will see why....... I digress. There are two types of Silk Pictures: the first one, is a see thru type that is generally on a stand so that the picture can be turned and you see the reverse image, and the second is in a standard frame to be viewed from one side. But, can be see on both sides if taken out of the frame. The give-away on the age is the type of frame. The antiques ones are mahogany and are held together by mortise and tenon method. I'll shoot you a couple of pictures so you can see what I mean...... hang on........here you go.   This one can be seen on both sides, but it does look great just as a typical picture.  This is the way typical Silk Pictures are sold to show the benefit of "seeing both sides" of the picture.  This image shows the clarity of the picture and fineness of the silk background. Hope I have been able to help. Cheers, johnw |
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Post by accidentalrockhound on Jan 4, 2019 13:25:06 GMT -5
Wow. Seriously great works. Along with the two side view and panels in frames. The work it self older single layer non_overlaping threads and newer style of overlapping styles. The 2 I have look single layer and not as detailed I will post photos of the two I picked up as soon as I can. Thanks for the info.
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Post by johnw on Jan 4, 2019 13:57:33 GMT -5
Wow. Seriously great works. Along with the two side view and panels in frames. The work it self older single layer non_overlaping threads and newer style of overlapping styles. The 2 I have look single layer and not as detailed I will post photos of the two I picked up as soon as I can. Thanks for the info. Looking forward to seeing them. Cheers, johnw Here is one more that I sent to Pat. This one is in a frame that is sealed so don't know how it looks on the rear. I believe though, the concept for this "Silk Picture" is to display the skill level in creating the illusion of something being round. I for one, think they did just that. Cheers, johnw  |
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mossyrockhound
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2011
Posts: 1,315
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Post by mossyrockhound on Jan 4, 2019 22:13:28 GMT -5
Love the great attention to detail on these!
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Post by johnw on Jan 5, 2019 1:37:48 GMT -5
Cool! How were the eyes lost? Did they fall out, or were they sculpted that way? What's the story behind the emphasized eyebrows? Thanks for the show. Hi Pat, the eyes seem to have faded. There was not too much glaze in that area and I did not see too much black residue under a loupe. As far as the eyebrows are concerned I don't know. Typically on the items I have the ladies all have fine eyebrows. If I had to make a guess it was just the idiosyncrasy of the painter who did the work at that time. But, that said, the people in the north of China where I got these from, who, being mainly farmers ,do not pluck their eyebrows.  Cheers, johnw |
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Jan 5, 2019 2:53:16 GMT -5
Back when my wife and I used to be involved with the antique business we used to run across those types of figurines occasionally. They are traded as "mud men" or "mudmen" figurines. Back in the mid 90s a couple of picker fiends of mine brought me in on a living estate they needed help purchasing that had a fairly large collection of those. Some of them were miniatures only around 5/8" to 3/4" tall. The detail was amazing for ceramic figures that small. The makers must have had tiny hands and great eyesight.
Larry C.
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Post by johnw on Jan 5, 2019 12:43:48 GMT -5
Back when my wife and I used to be involved with the antique business we used to run across those types of figurines occasionally. They are traded as "mud men" or "mudmen" figurines. Back in the mid 90s a couple of picker fiends of mine brought me in on a living estate they needed help purchasing that had a fairly large collection of those. Some of them were miniatures only around 5/8" to 3/4" tall. The detail was amazing for ceramic figures that small. The makers must have had tiny hands and great eyesight. Larry C. Larry, wow, you must have had a really interesting life in the antiques business. Congrats. What blows my mind is there are craftsmen still in China that carve figures from grains of rice that are so small you need a loupe to see them and they sell for a big, no, huge, piles of money. It's like many things in life, it's what a person is willing to pay for the item that is unique and perhaps the only one in the world. Now, if we could only get the overall population to appreciate what we craft as rockers, we could have it made.  Cheers, johnw |
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Jan 5, 2019 16:42:59 GMT -5
... Now, if we could only get the overall population to appreciate what we craft as rockers, we could have it made. Cheers, johnw Don't laugh, it's happened twice before. The Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements in the late 19th and very early 20th century. And again during the early to mid 1970s when handmade jewelry and hand tooled leather goods were HOT and easy to sell. We just need a few modern day folks like John Ruskin, Charles Eastlake and William Morris to jump-start it for us.  Larry C. |
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Cheers, johnw
... to the New Guys from The ChatBox V.2 Crew