A word about the chinese
I have often seen "Chinese" used to describe junk that is produced. It is a fact that they are capable of producing products in any range from pure junk to the finest quality - check where many good things are produced or the components and you will see Chinese.
The reality is that China can produce the finest quality anything - it is the rich western owners of the companies that ask them to cut corners and produce it cheap so they can sell it cheap.
As I say this, my iphone is ringing - a fine product produced in a factory similar to where most others things are made with low safety standards that endanger workers - but get the products to us cheaper - that is why is costs so little to what it should.
I find it odd that we are prepared to buy a product "made in Italy" that is factually produced elsewhere (like China, Pakistan, India etc) and simply assembled in Italy for ludicrous pries, but yet the same product IF made in China to the same standards would still only cost half.
People who built the great wall, and have a nuclear program, are in the space program and have the worlds largest military are not in the business of junk unless we the consumer ask for it.
And we have.
🙂
P.S. I am not Chinese, I am Australian...MATE!
According to the Internet...
According to the Internet the time period Curtis & Jerry (aka C Jere) actually designed and produced pieces as artisan house was 1963 to 1972. It was sold in 72 and passed through several hands. I think it's fair to say the quality of the designs and production went into steep decline after they sold it. It seems the pieces made or designed in that era are what is in demand and fetches higher prices. I can clearly see why, after the company was sold creating art for the masses concept seemed to go out the window in favor of whatever crap people will buy.
The Chinese reference seems to come from the fact that in 2003 production was moved to China, but the company is American owned, according to wiki. Before the over sea outsourcing the pieces were being produced in California.
Thanks again for your help...
Thanks again for your help Tom.
I did find out that the Celestial Night (the moon sculpture you found that is in the same family as mine.) was only "retired" by Artisan House in the past few years, but is still viewable on their website. Makes me wonder if the piece in the photo is "new" or "vintage" I emailed the seller and they said it was vintage, but I have my doubts.
What's curious is my piece has not been produced by Artisan House in a very long time. I have not been able to find a duplicate of it anywhere and the post you found on the Celestial Moon piece is the only place, outside of Artisan House "retired" catalog, that I've seen anything even close to it.
(Also funny, the sellers with the Celestial Moon piece sold it within 3 days of you posting the link to it on here. Made me wonder if someone reading the thread decided to buy it.)
I did email Artisan House with my inquiry but go no response. I figure tons of people write in every week trying to confirm if an old metal sculptures is by C.Jere. I'm also afraid the current management of Artisan House/C. Jere doesn't concern itself much with older pieces unless they are in current production or suddenly fetching high auction prices. So I'm attempting to find other resources on C.Jere production pre-1980. If anyone knows of any resources or has experiences doing research on vintage metal wall art - please share.
(FYI: I thought about emailing the poster above who's Mom worked for the firm but since she only came on board in 1980 it might not do any good. I've also seen a few relatives of the founders posting online and considered contacting them, but I doubt they would know obscure details about all the production done from early 60's to 1972. I think my best bet is finding sellers who specialize in metal wall art and getting what information from them that I can. If anyone knows one besides Groovy Wares (who I already contacted) please let me know.)
Thanks for all the help. Once again DA (Tom in particular) solved the main mystery for me, but now I'm just curious to get more information if possible.
More info....
Finally found more information on the sculpture via wothpoint. Seller a few months ago sold the same wall piece on eBay, saying it was signed by C. Jere and they still had an original certificate for the piece. Seller said the piece was entitled "the comet" which is confusing since there is another jere piece called "comet"that is just one big comet.
But I'm happy to find out more about it and even happier that when the same piece was listed as a "c jere" piece on eBay it sold for $1,500. But without that name attached I bought it for a little over $200. Bully for me because I hate inflated prices just for the name attached - when it should just be appreciated on its merits.
However since the other seller I found said the piece was signed it makes me wonder if I am missing the signature somewhere on the tarnished backside.
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/contemporary-modern-jere-signed-me...
Another one
from Worthpoint/Ebay:
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/curtis-jere-modern-atomic-star-gal...
Danke!!
Hey Thanks! This one gives more specific info., but again as with the other listing says it's signed and comes with a certificate of authenticity, but it added it produced in 1999.
So this gives me a bit of mystery. My piece doesn't have the same bright gold colors, the star in the corner on mine is black in the center. There are a few other minor differences, like the comet tails on mine pt upwards, not down, different metal swirl spokes, etc.. Stuff I noticed by trying to carefully compare the two.
The seller I bought this from said it came from an older persons estate and she believed it to be at least 25 years old or more. I trust this seller (dealt with before) but what she thinks is no guarantee on the age. Other factor is my inspection of the metal convinced me it was a couple decades old, again just my educated opinion.
So the piece was in production in the late 90's. I figure thats why the 2 sellers found both had certificates and signatures on their pieces. I don't think they provided "certificates" years ago and I know not all pieces were signed either. So what I need to find out is if it was produced in previous decades.
From my research I know artisan house is happy to pull old designs off the shelf and put them back into production if they think they will sell. I was told by one dealer that as soon as a few vintage Jere pieces fetch decent auction prices Artisan House will suddenly return them to production.
Sigh, drives me crazy when more information only leads to more questions. It would be so much easier if artisan house would answer my inquiries. I even pretended I wanted to buy something! Well now that I have a confirmed title and at least one verified year it was produced I try contacting them again saying I want to buy it and see what info I can fish out of them, might even give them a call now that I have the title and don't require them to look at a photo of my piece. Ill update when and if I get any more hard info to add.
Thanks again for all the help. You guys are really fabulous.
"Comet" by C Jere
My Mom just passed away and has this exact same peice, perhaps purchased in Florida. I was looking into finding it on the net as I do have the tag of authenticity. It has Artisan House Inc. and the date made was 1993 #100988. It is in fact by the sculpter, C Jere.
I was wondering its worth at this time?
Michelle
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com