Posted 8 years ago
Mrstyndall
(903 items)
I found this diorama yesterday. I think that this is Japanese-I have seen pieces like this before but have never bought one. They are very delicate and easily broken. I have seen similar that said they are made from cork. The glass top lifts entirely off. Very very detailed work.
I love these Japanese/ Chinese Cork art sculptures ! The detail is amazing . I had a few and of coarse broke them :-( I agree they are fragile .
There's a few in my favourite Chinese restaurant.
Thanks, Manikin and Spiritbear!! Yes, the detail in these is astonishing, but what a nice decoration.
This is a Chinese cork carvings, which surprisingly isn't a very old tradition in China, in fact most of this art was produced in the 80s. At the same time, because so many craftspeople were making carvings of such poor quality, the market was lost, and almost all the companies went out of business. That's not to say cork carvings have no value, there are some things to look for when buying, mainly the quality of the carving, that things are to scale, that there is fine detail, that the dioramas are intricate showing the skills of the artisan. If yours was a four sided glass encased diorama with those characteristics, it is probably vintage and worth more.
Katherinescollections, thanks for the info on this. The four sides of this is glass.
I have three examples myself, two encased, the other on the lid of a box. These carvings have always fascinated me. I'd love to find one like yours. :)
Katherinescollections, yes, I was intrigued by the scale and attention to detail on this. I was kind of surprised too that you can lift the lid off completely. Surprised it has survived in this shape.