Asian Arts

Four Porcelain Platters, ca. 1910

Transcript

GUEST: I met my husband at USC. We were both going to school there. He was from Afghanistan. He was there studying. His guardian had sent him out of the country. And when we married in America, his guardian said, "You had better both go back and see where you want to settle." So we went back to Afghanistan. His father had died when he was three. And when he went back to see what he inherited, we went to a garden in Istalif, which is outside of Kabul. And the old family retainer who had been there all those years said, "You know, there's something that your father left. It's underneath the mud house." And he pulled out a wooden box. And out came these platters. There were seven of them. I have these four, two more just like this, and then one that's larger.

APPRAISER: And how did these plates get to Kabul?

GUEST: He had a camel caravan.

APPRAISER: Really?

GUEST: And it went along the silk route. He had trade with Russia. And, uh...

APPRAISER: This was what year?

GUEST: Around 1922 is the best that I can figure counting back.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: He went to Samarqand and had a lot of trade there.

APPRAISER: That's in what's now Uzbekistan.

GUEST: Yes. It's all Central Asia. It was Russia then, and he brought these back on his camel caravan.

APPRAISER: What do you know about this one, for instance?

GUEST: Well, I tried to do my homework before I came. So I looked it up on the Web, and they said look for a blue underglaze with an orange-red overglaze. I think it is a Chinese copy of a Japanese Imari.

APPRAISER: A very interesting plate to me is this one.

GUEST: Yeah, this one is much easier because right on the back, it says "Gardener."

APPRAISER: This was made in Russia just before the revolution. Just before 1917, because they hadn't yet started production over again at the Gardener Factories.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So this could not have been made after 1917. So this was a holdover, one of the latter-- one of the later productions--

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: --of what was made before the revolution. This one, the colors aren't what we normally see--

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: --in Chinese plates.

GUEST: Yes, I thought so, too.

APPRAISER: That's because it's Japanese.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: This mark is Nikko. Japanese.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness!

APPRAISER: That's why the colors are so strange. It's a Chinese-type Japanese porcelain. Made about 1920. This one is Chinese. Without any question, it's Chinese Famille-Rose--

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: --made about 1900.

GUEST: Okay, wow.

APPRAISER: The last one, which you said was Chinese is actually Japanese.

GUEST: It is Japanese?

APPRAISER: That really is Japanese Imari.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: There is Chinese export Imari copying the Japanese, but made only in the 18th century.

GUEST: Well, that's what I--

APPRAISER: They never made it later. No.

GUEST: --thought it was.

APPRAISER: It's circa 1900.