Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

That Warm and Fuzzy Feeling

That Warm and Fuzzy Feeling

I guess you have probably determined that I like porcelain figurines among some of my other interests. When I was in Germany, an Antique dealer introduced them to me. We had many mutual interests. He had been a soldier in WW2.

“Now you will never be able to afford what I am going to show you, but you need to know what they are and how to spot them….” He said, “And how to grade the quality and sort out the fakes and knock-offs.”

The tutorial began with Meissen Figurines which are among the most beautiful and most sought after. The glaze and colors and rich variety are absolutely stunning and it doesn’t take long to get hooked. If you want to see some examples go on line and search Meissen, Figurines. You will get to see some great examples. There are however other great manufactures such as Heutsehreuter, Lladro, Royal Dalton, Royal Dux, Dresden and a host of others. After a day of walking about and seeing nothing noteworthy I go on line and search some of these sites so I don’t forget what “awesome” looks like.

Many people are familiar with the trademarks but this is not the best place to start. Begin by examining the “Wow” factor. Does the sheer beauty knock you right on your behinder…? That is always the first, foremost and most weighty of the criteria and it applies to all great art, talent and craftsmanship. Yes, a great artist or manufacturer will tend to consistently produce good stuff but everybody has good days and bad days and this applies to most everything. Next I look at the glaze, colors and detail. Is the glaze almost opaque with the colors shining richly up through the surface? Then is it chipped or broken? Some of my best examples have imperfections and sometimes even severe breakage… I would rather have a flawed or broken work of art than a perfect piece of dime store junk. Lastly I look at the name underneath and the trademark. If it is selling inexpensively it is still often authentic….I mean why would anyone want to forge art and then sell it cheap? With a little practice you can spot the knockoffs regardless of the trademark embossed underneath. (They leave you non-pulsed.)

I mentioned yesterday that I bought a plastic toy action figure that exuded the WOW and I have it sitting on my desk and every time I look at it I feel the same tingle that I get whenever I see something well done. That is the big lesson to collecting things… Does each example give the “tingle” that warm and fuzzy feeling of being in the presence of an inanimate object that has the spirit of the artist trapped inside? As writers it is something we need to aspire to achieve for we are artists in every bit the sense of others in the creative arts.

Sometimes I read back over something I’ve written and feel that same tingle. It tells me that the piece was written on a good day.