Featured Peranakan "Nyonyaware" Bowl/Dish...thingy!

But having said that it is also a fact that sometimes these narcissus bowls are included in Peranakan auctions and there is nothing to prevent Peranakans from liking and coveting them. Collectors, especially the purists, have a different view which is sometimes much too strict. For me personally, I would not consider them Peranakan, but in Perakanan taste.

 

Well I'm sorry if I upset anybody by identifying my pieces as nyonyaware. As far as I've seen, they look the part, based on every other piece I've seen.

 

I am not upset in the slightest for one and I hope you aren’t too. Sepuloh orang sepuloh macam (everyone is different)

 

Well it's nice to find other people who can speak confidently about Peranakan culture - lord knows there aren't enough of us around.

 

I have seen other pieces of porcelain sold elsewhere (eBay, auctions of various kinds, etc) labeled as "peranakan" or 'nyonyaware', which look absolutely NOTHING like what most people would consider conventional nyonyaware - not even in-passing, so it makes one wonder just how fluid the term 'nyonyaware' is?

Some pieces look extremely like nyonyaware / are nyonyaware, like the pieces I have - whereas others look nothing like that. And yet, I've met other Peranakan collectors who swear up-and-down that these pieces ARE nyonyaware, although I can never really follow what their reasoning is, beyond "I inherited it from my baba ancestors", etc. If that's one of the criteria, then so be it, but... *shrugs!*

 

It is a term that sells.

In that case just about anything is Peranakan or Nyonya ware.

 

As far as I'm concerned, this is nyonyaware. It matches the style and colour palette and decorative themes/motifs of authentic pieces I've seen, and it's of the right age.

Perhaps, but how many people would even know what that is? Most people have never even heard of the Peranakan, as this thread alone attests to...

Yeah - and that's what makes it so damn confusing.

Like, I have a friend who has a literal cupboard full of nyonyaware that his grandparents brought over from Malacca when they moved to Australia back in the 80s or whatever it was...nobody's gonna tell him that stuff isn't authentic - it's been in his family since-new, which was probably a century ago, going by its appearance.

 

It is not the number of people who know that counts, it is how many are willing to pay good money for the items.

It is the same with many other items. My fields of interest are generally considered niche, but I usually get fierce competition when bidding at an auction.

 

That wasn't quite what I meant, but OK.

I was thinking more of - how many sellers know what Peranakan-style porcelain looks like? How would they identify it? How many of them have heard of it? Of course the people who want to buy it, will go and hunt for it, knowing what it is, but I've met plenty of antiques collectors and dealers who buy all kinds of stuff without having the slightest clue what it is, and try and sell it on that basis.

Like I said earlier - I've seen loads of things being sold as "Peranakan" which are very obviously not, and it makes me wonder if people just throw the word around just because it sounds 'exotic' but have no real idea what it means.

 

SE Asian collectors buy worldwide, and since SE Asia is a huge market, sellers come to know what their SE Asian buyers look for.

I agree, many sellers use the term for items that are not specifically Peranakan, or not Peranakan at all. But that is because they know the term and they know they get more eyes on their item with the term Peranakan.