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Subject:Re: 18th C. Chinese American Export
Posted By: Bill H Wed, Dec 27, 2017
It would appear from clues in the decorative style, enamel hues and opacity, as well as the tell-tale artificial dirtying of the foot, that you have a late 20th century or subsequent product of a Chinese porcelain ornamentation factory. Such industries flourished in Hong Kong and Macao during the last half of the 20th century, at which time they provided a great deal of faux Americana during the period leading up to and through the several year-long USA bicentennial celebration in the 1970s. Nowadays, similar but more technologically advanced porcelain decorating factories have spread to other spots in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Indonesia, and to special industrial zones like Shenzhen on the China Mainland, according to what I've been hearing.
Here are a couple of links to other related discussion threads from this forum.
http://asianart.com/phpforum/index.php?method=detailAll&Id=54876&PHPSESSID=eogu96eis3lvnfbhuk7sn42852
http://asianart.com/phpforum/index.php?method=detailAll&Id=102284
Any collectible value of these pieces probably will be overshadowed by their decorative value for the foreseeable future, in my opinion. Here are a couple of auction results for identical tureens with similar but more evenly executed eagle motifs than yours. The first sold for $180, while the second found no takers (though the minimum bid was higher).
https://classic.liveauctioneers.com/item/55441333_soup-tureen-and-under-plate
https://classic.liveauctioneers.com/item/509319_chinese-export-style-covered-soup-tureen
If you take the wise step of cleaning the grunge off your tureen, I'd suggest using rubber gloves and not placing the piece before or after cleaning on any surface where food is prepared. Neither should you use the tureen to prepare or serve food after it has been cleaned, due to the high possibility of it having a lead-based glaze. Since the body of the components may be low-fired, soft-paste pottery and not highly vitrified porcelain, avoid chlorine bleach, which can damage such pottery. A hydrogen peroxide-based spray-type bathroom cleaner would be effective and appropriate, considering the kind of filth that is sometimes factory-applied in an effort to artificially antique such items; furthermore, peroxide also is free of the harsher properties of chlorine bleach.
Best regards,
Bill H.
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