| Special to The Detroit News
Some wedding gifts are received and quickly forgotten. Mary Ellen Lemire, on the other hand, still has the small green vase she and her husband were given for their nuptials almost 40 years later.
No average gift, the small green vessel was given to the couple as a wedding present in 1982 from a friend whose mother was a Chinese antiques dealer, Lemire recently explained to appraiser Brian Thomczek at a Trash or Treasure event held at the Michigan Design Center in Troy. “I’ve always thought it was beautiful but don’t really know anything about it,” she added.
Thomczek agreed with her assessment. “It is beautiful,” he confirmed, adding that the small vase measures 6 inches high and 5 ½ inches in diameter. The Asian piece is an example of celadon ware, he added, which christies.com defines as “a type of ceramic with a soft grey-green-coloured glaze. The effect is achieved through applying an iron-rich liquefied clay “slip” to the ceramic before it is fired in a kiln. During the heating process, the iron oxidises to leave a delicate and lustrous green coating.”
The piece “is nicely done, with some craquelure on the surface but it’s not bad overall,” Thomczek explained of Lemire’s example, adding, “It’s in good general condition and there are no chips.” Craquelure, he said, is a network of fine cracks that can occur in old paintings, porcelain or other ceramics.
Lemire’s vase is definitely old, but saying exactly how old can be problematic. “Asian gets tricky,” he said, adding the piece is signed but can be hard to decipher. “It probably dates to the late 18th or early 19th century,” the appraiser explained. He also said that while their friend’s mother specialized in Chinese pieces, he believes this piece to be Korean. “It reminds me of a smaller kimchi vessel,” he added, containers which were often used for making the fermented vegetable dish that is a Korean diet staple.
“I cannot really decipher the characters on the bottom,” Lemire added. Thomczek said despite thoughts to the contrary, marks and labels don’t always help with identification. “A lot of time labels and numbers don’t really solve anything,” he explained, adding “symbols and numbers could be nothing more than inventory markers.”
He praised the piece’s form and color, adding it definitely has age and is an example of an older Asian antique and appraised it at $400 to $600 at auction.
“The Chinese market in particular is really hot right now” he added, explaining that it has spurred some less-than-honest dealers to fake the look of age. “Be careful, because some are trying to make things look old by burying them in the ground,” he noted. “The lesson is to always buy from a reputable dealer.”
Lemire intends to keep it. “I have it in my dining room where everyone can see it because I think it’s really beautiful.”
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About this item
Item: Korean vase
Owner: Mary Ellen Lemire
Appraiser: Brian Thomczek
Appraised value: $400 to $600 at auction
