New, new thing  

Well I'm sort of new to this, but completely serendipitously
If what you suggest indeed is true, and if it's really going to increase, then at least some attribution will have to be due to the issue this week of the new Eames stamps -- I was wondering what the effect would be, if anything -- ok, and it's too early to say anything, but either it will flood the market with the cheapo repros, or it will increase demand for the originals, more likely both.
But then, I thought this trend for MCM has been going on for a really long time now, no? I was interested in collecting MCM about 10 years ago and found too much that I had to stop. Only recently did I begin again, and am still finding plenty (the original stuff, and for ridiculous prices - cheap, I mean)

dots
Most of the people on this website are absolutely, true afficionados of the early movement to pure design. They are experts on line, form, who, what, where and when. They are a font of information and have enjoyed exclusivity?(is that a word?) of knowledge in the era of machine-made products designed and executed by architects and designers. The people who populate this forum could write the manifesto on mid-century modern design. I recently bought a 1957 home in South Carolina and have been, literally, raping these poor people for their ideas on how to furnish it. They have been very patient with me because I am new to their arena, which I appreciate!:)
My point is, (and, I swear I do have one,) that during the last month that I have been delving into this era, I have also noticed in my "traditional" antiques business, a hugely increased interest in acquiring items of this period.
Now, if regular old Jane and John Doe in South Carolina (of all places) are beginning to sit up and take notice of 1950's furniture, it is just a slippery slope until we see some gross plastic Barcelona chair in Walmart and the experts need to get ready to be deluged with questions from the McMansion sect.
Rebuttals?

well kids welcome to DA ...
well kids welcome to DA but containers of mcm knockoffs have been coming in for 5 years and they are nothing new , check our archives if you want to be brought up to speed.
This forum is like a family and no one wants to be rude as those that are we have quietly ushered off
This subject has been beat to death by some of our best experts, we have had shouting, yelling, name calling but at t he end of the day it is a general consensus that we all dislike Chinese knockoffs,
We do like the nelson clocks, as we have had 5 complete threads to 100 talking about the great clocks and the great knockoffs made by unknow chinese factories that have copied the Vitra Nelson clocks perfectly and we all love them and bought them till the company needed to reorder thanks to our group, any thing else really does not appeal to anyone although we do realize that they are what is called a necessary evil somtimes.
so with all do respect Riki, next time you sound the alert which is helpful check the archives first.

knockoffs
Sorry. I've overstepped my bounds. LRF, I regularly shop (wholesale) at the Las Vegas, High Point, Dallas and Atlanta markets. Every furniture company is represented at these markets. All I'm saying is that for the last few years, buyers couldn't get enough of Chinese replica antique knockoffs. Buyers who have never bought a container-full of anything in their lives were investing 20 and 30 thousand dollars in containers of this crap because they had customers clamoring for the stuff. These are antique dealers from Des Moines and Peoria and Timbuktoo. They are making a killing on this stuff.
My observation is that MCM is the next thing to hit Peoria. (No offense, Peorians.)
I promise to never bring this up again.

Riki, I agree with your characterization of the people here
Absolutely stunning level of knowledge and generosity with same. But that's what makes a great forum.
I'll have to go look to see if there has already been a thread about the Eames stamps. I'm very curious about what people who know this genre are anticipating - if anything.
It would be hard to imagine MCM getting *more* popular and *more* cheap imports flooding the market. Which is why I do all of my MCM shopping in thrift stores and swap meets - the places I'm guaranteed to find exceptional deals on the real deal. But then, I'm in CA so I think our second-hand markets tend to get alot more MCM than middle America.
And thanks for the welcome LRF! I'm thrilled to have been googleled here (hey did I just coin a term? google-led?)

Riki - I have to ask - where...
Riki - I have to ask - where have you been for the last 10 years?

Just wait till MCM gets to be...
the next new thing with Jane and John Leung (kind of a Chinese equivalent of Smith). How about a half a billion Womb Chairs FOB/COD?
The old Modernists may still realize their dream of a world in which furntiture design is rationalized.
Old new ideas die hard. 🙂

Not to put too fine a point
on things, but I believe that the MCM movement and all of its attendant components (furniture, architecture, etc.) has been popular, desirable, and collectible since the first chair, credenza, (fill-in-the-blank) items rolled out of a design studio.
Yes there has been a burgeoning resurgence in interest, but from the very first piece of furniture at the dawn of the movement it was a way for that generation to move away from the tastes and design sensibilities of their parents generation. At least in America it seemed to be a decisive move away from furnishing one's home as if this were still frontier colonial America.
And yet, it also seems as if it were a natural progression and refinement of Art Deco and Moderne from an earlier generation, or if you will; From Bauhaus to our House.

riki
Sorry. I've overstepped my bounds. LRF
not true at all !! you are free to say anything, any time about Chinese crap.
as you are 100 percent correct , dealers have been buying containers full of the stuff for the last 5 years.
The interesting thing is it still keeps coming in and will be popular as long as it is reasonably made decent and the price is still right, with the low price of the dollar, I seriously doubt that the Chinese, who purposely priced the original furniture low so we would take the bate, can keep making the same stuff with out going cheaper in their materials, with out a wopping increase, and then the interest will wain,
One thing about it knockoff or no knockoff the MCM is a popular look, cause it is classic look, and has already survived for 50 plus years.

The way I see the effect of all the new knockoffs is
So many people discard their "old" stuff to buy the new shiny versions, thinking that's an improvement. And their vintage stuff ends up in garage sales and thrift stores and on craigslist.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! 😀

The Chinese AREalready experiencing outsourcing...
I just read a story recently that said many big manufacturers are starting to build two plants--one in China and one in Vietnam. China's wages outside of prison labor are rising sharply--25% per year in some segments this past year. And China's employment level is now high enough that strikes and other labor unrest are appearing. Millions are now relying on cars now, too, and so the high gas prices are really jamming them, too. China's inflationary experience is projected to get worse, because China's horded trillions of dollars are now worth exactly half what they were a year ago on the foreign markets, so all the energy they have to import (and they have to import a lot), plus a ton of food and so forth, will all become sharply more expensive for the Chinese citizens very shortly. Imagine the kind of shock that is going to send through a society and its corporate players. China it self is encouraging certain kinds of outsourcing to avoid being held hostage by their own inflation cramped, unemployed masses. Sound familiar? Increasingly, the cheap MCM knock-offs are going to come from Vietnam. China is already doing what the USA and Japan did before them. They are moving their employment into higher margin jobs. They are emphasizing machine tool design and manufacture and expanding engineering employment in all sectors. This of course spells real pain for the USA and EU techno classes of employment--the last economic segments of any size that can afford to buy anything new and of high quality. Those in the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) segment are finding it very difficult to use the remaining balances on their credit cards as they are jumping out of windows, too.
Very shortly, the only thing beyond bare necessities most persons will be able to afford are digital experiences.
And until the conflict over who gets ALL of the OIL and gas in the Middle East, and who gets control of Central Asia and of valving its resources onto world markets, this game of economic chicken in which the FED, the ECB and the Chinese central bank play the game of seeing which central bank can survive the convergence of the standards of livings of these three still sharply separated regions of the world's economy will persist. And Israel and Russia Venezuela will continue to play each off against they other as they jockey for their long term independences in this very scarey and brutal game of last man standing in the global hegemony game.

Been away...
Paulanna-I live in the Southeastern US where I have two retail stores, but I go to Europe every year to handpick and import containers of antiques from the Loire Valley, the Paris markets and the English fairs. Also, with the dollar so dismal, I have lately been venturing all up and down the eastern seaboard to procure my wares and where I found a Dunbar sofa in Ohio for 35$. I'm going to Loreto, Mexico two Tuesdays from now for a little R & R and to scout investment opportunities because I have it on the QT that's it where the Mexican gov't is about to endorse the next Cabo (where i've been three times). I have lived in 8 states in the US, including 15 years in California in LA, Long Beach, Pasadena, San Gabriel, Hesperia, Carmichael and Alta Loma. I've attended 21 different schools across the US and have two degrees. I've vacationed in Bled, Slovenia and the coast of Wales and know how to pronounce Ljubljana and Llandudno. I've also spent a significant amount of time in Salt Lake City, Utah, where my Mormon grandfather taught me manners. In short, I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere. BTW, where have you been?
Back to the point, once I reread this thread, it occurred to me that I have not been being clear. To a traditional antique dealer, the phrase "Chinese piece of crap reproduction" means a brand new item resembling an ASIAN piece of furniture, most likely made in Indonesia or Bali, i.e. a Chinese altar table, a red lacquered armoire, a black lacquered faux bamboo mirror, a rice bucket with handles, etc. THAT is what's in every other booth at market, that is what is coming in by the container load, that is what dealers have been selling by the nauseating ton.
I still stick by my guns that you mid-century modern guys have a very, very long way to go before you see saturation in your market. The mid-century modern motif has not caught on with John and Jane Doe in Peoria yet but it is imminent. I know it sickens you already to talk about knockoffs and reproductions, but, I promise you, you have not seen anything yet.

been away II
I am predicting that you will soon see Danish modern teak generic knockoffs, crazy orange faux Panton chairs, snail shaped coffee table bases, etc, in every Pier I, in every TJMaxx and one fake piece in every McMansion from Boise to Baton Rouge.
If you think you have seen it all, you ain't seen nothin' yet until Mr. & Mrs. Yuppie in St. Louis, Missouri all want "those Eames things" in their den.
Paulanna; Please don't take offense, perhaps I was a little too rude! I am the first to admit that I have joined this forum to gather information in a rather crass way to glean information from your knowledge but it is strictly with the understanding that I have none (knowledge) in your arena and am trying to learn fast. Truce? (I think I was offended by your tone that I might have just crawled out from under a doublewide and I went overboard to let you know that was very far from so!)
Peace, sister.