Mysterious Business Card for the TianXinCheng 天新成 (成新天 Tien Hsin Cheng) Cloisonne Company

 A puzzle resolved by a passage in Zhou Chunbing's 2022 book, Enamel Bureau: Research and Collection of Famous Cloisonné Workshops in Modern China ?

A business card with a factory name similar to DeXingCheng, perhaps emphasizing a new, modern look to appeal to chic shoppers in the 1920s?  An imitator, or a branch manager? Or perhaps a factory operating post-World War II?

Zhou found a 1947 reference with this exact workshop name, including the owner, so evidently it was operating post-WWII.  Whether it was operating before WWII, or whether it survived or was reorganized to be one of the 42 factories incorporated into the Beijing Enamel Factory in 1956 is unclear to me (Zhou, pages 33-34). The workshop existed in 1947, but its predecessor and/or successor, if any, are a mystery. And of course there are no signed pieces to attribute to this workshop, so we don't know the style of their pieces. 

"According to a survey conducted in March 1947, there were approximately thirty cloisonné enamelware factories and over forty shops selling cloisonné enamelware in Beiping (Beijing). There were also about ten self-producing and self-selling businesses, mostly concentrated in the Chongwenmen Street, Wangfujing Street, and Qianmenwai Street areas. Their scale was evident from the number of employees. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937 disrupted sea routes, and several well-known workshops disappeared for various reasons, leaving only a few small, family-run workshops that remained, some disappearing and some reappearing, until the early days of the People's Republic of China. Clearly, large workshops that insisted on high-quality materials, exquisite craftsmanship, and superior workmanship could no longer survive and all ceased operations. ...

On August 31, 1949, the Beiping Municipal Government's Bureau of Industry and Commerce invited experts and professors including Liang Sicheng, Fei Xiaotong, Xu Beihong, Lin Huiyin, Gao Zhuang, Ma Datao, Wu Zuoren, Ma Heng, Han Shoushou, and Wang Shixiang, as well as over 30 representatives from the Beiping Special Handicrafts Association, importers and exporters, women's federations, banks, and industrial research institutes to a symposium. On the spot, nine people, including Liang Sicheng, Fei Xiaotong, and Xu Beihong, were elected to establish a research institution on special handicrafts. Under the leadership of Professors Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, the Department of Architecture at Tsinghua University established an art group to rescue the endangered art of cloisonné. It is evident that it was precisely through the rescue and protection efforts of the People's Government and the guidance and assistance of experts that Beijing cloisonné was restored and developed.

In 1956, private enamel workshops were merged into the Beijing Enamel Factory (including investors and absorbed businesses)."

[click on pictures to enlarge them]

https://www.beadiste.com/2015/02/puzzling-evidence-clue-about-dexing-or.html

Mysterious Japanese Cloisonne Scroll Weghts (Fuchin)

Recently I acquired a large  45x33mm bead designed as a Japanese scroll weight (fuchin).  The design and rounded shape resembles a spherical bead also in my little collection of three. None of them were very expensive (although the crocheted and knotted tassels seem harder to come by), possibly because they look so  … “rugged,” shall we say.

Two possibilities:

1.       They’re early mid-19^th century cloisonne, made before the early pre-Meiji workshops got the glass formulations and wire solder right, hence the gassy, pitted enamel that can’t be brought to a high polish (doro shippo); or,

2.       They’re much later products, possibly circa 1920s, deliberately designed to be crude according to the wabi-sabi aesthetic.

What do you think?

[Note: clicking on a photo will enlarge it, and the image can then be enlarged a bit further by opening it in a new tab.]

My small collection

https://mingeiarts.com/products/japanese-vintage-kutani-scroll-weights-fuchin

Comparison of 4 different cylinders

Six more cylinders

Rare Antique Chinese Cloisonne Beads Featuring Spotted Deer, Red-Crowned Cranes, and a Dragon

 Eleven years ago, back in July 2015, I wrote about 4 rare Chinese cloisonne beads featuring red-crowned cranes.  Recently two similar beads turned up, this time featuring a dragon chasing the flaming pearl of wisdom, and a landscape scene with a tiny spotted deer and red-crowned crane among mountainside pines. These are classic Chinese themes.  The following slides from auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s and the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art provide explanation and examples.

If anyone has other examples of these seemingly very rare antique beads, do let me know.

[Clicking on an image will enlarge it; opening the enlarged image in a new tab will enlarge it even more.]

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5088341

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/china-5000-years-2/a-cloisonne-enamel-deer-and-crane-moonflask-qing

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/72437

Catalog Booklet of Cloisonne Animals Produced Circa 1970 by Peking Arts and Crafts

 Cloisonne animals are featured in a catalog from Peking Arts and Crafts.  While there is no publication date listed, the phrase

“Since the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution this kind of traditional arts has undergone further development, winning popular favour among peoples of all countries”

likely places the date within the 1966-76 era of the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976 with the deaths of Mao and Zhou Enlai.

Imports from China had been under embargo by the United States for 20 years, from the Korean War in 1950 until after Kissinger’s visit in mid-1971 to reopen diplomatic and trade relations. According to the back information in the catalog, however, the major export customer for the cloisonne products listed was still Hong Kong.

Zhang Tonglu, who worked at the cloisonne workshop in the Peking Arts and Crafts factory (established 1960 cf prior blog post), related in interviews how buyers from Hong Kong used to reside for weeks in hotels surrounding the factory in order to accumulate stock immediately as works were produced.

Following the scans of the catalog pages are a few pictures from the Palace Museum collection showing some cloisonne works the factory artists might have used for inspiration in their effort to update “traditional arts.”

A cursory Google Lens search revealed recent auctions featuring what appear to be these colorful reproduction pieces, often listed as "Qing." However, I like to think that the purchasers, whether originally or at auction,  were savvy enough to recognize attractive repros at bargain prices compared to actual imperial antiques.

Note: pictures can be opened in a new tab if an expanded view is desired.

From the Peking Museum collection

From the Peking Museum collection

Auction examples