Topic: The Journey of the Chinese Classical Garden Series of Medals

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Some pictures I took of Geyuan silver and brass proof.

Stunning details including the three jumping/flying fish! I am going to have a good look at these medals with a magnifier lamp. Seems there is a lot I have been missing. Great photography.  

[fwang2450]

Liuyuan's medal's pattern strike

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Liuyuan's medal's pattern strike

Do you have the release date and mintage information?

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Liuyuan's medal's pattern strike

Liuyuan (or Lingering Garden) is one of the four most famous Gardens in China, along with the Summer Palace, Mountain Resort and the Humble Administrator's gardens (http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/woeld_heritage/99280.htm). Additional details can also be found here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingering_Garden.

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Spotted a picture online of what may be one of the design elements of the medal; used to frame the ?reverse side of the Liuyuan Garden medal. There is at least one (or more) entry/exit point(s) at the garden that seems to have the same (arched/archway) design.

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The attached photo shows other design components of the reverse side of the medal that I am seeing as I peruse online photographs of the Liuyuan Garden. At the center is the "Cloud Crowned Peak" which is a 6.5 meter carved Taihu rock "column" weighing about 5 tons. Represents artwork from the Ming dynasty of 1000 years ago.

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This is the entrance into the "One More Village" section of the Liuyuan Garden. I suspect that the framing of the reverse of the medal also embodies that component but the medal designer's narrative may throw more light on that. From what I read the One More Village used to be a thriving farm. It now contains an eclectic selection of bonsai plants. Experts should be able to tell us if the lettering over this entry point is the same with that on the reverse of the medal, and what it says.

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Again, online photos clearly identify the group of buildings surrounding the pond which are represented on the obverse side of the medal.

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I wonder if the partly shown boat on the medal represents the continuing watercraft based entertainment program they have at the Garden. Seems like traditional musicians entertain visitors to the garden from slow moving paddled boats as well as at various stations on land.

[fwang2450]

Do you have the release date and mintage information?

There is no release date yet as the pattern is still being reviewed and critiqued by the group. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. At the moment two major complaints have been raised: the boat is too stiff and the rock is too solid, not as slim, as hollowed as the one it is modeled on:

[fwang2450]

I will ask for the mintage information.

[KeepOnTrying!]

There is no release date yet as the pattern is still being reviewed and critiqued by the group. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. At the moment two major complaints have been raised: the boat is too stiff and the rock is too solid, not as slim, as hollowed as the one it is modeled on:

My two cents: The "Cloud Crowned Peak" seems to be too much “in your face” so to speak. It is dominating the view and in a way seems to be blocking “entry” into the garden. My suggestion, if it is not too late, is to scoot it further into the medal so that it assumes its normal position between the “gazebos” on the left and right as it does in the garden. The white shaded box area of the medal can be reworked to reflect vegetation in front and around the base of the carved stone column. Yes it needs to be skinnier.

The Garden needs to come alive more. If you already have human figures on the obverse they are not prominent. There needs to be more human activity to warm up the medal.

Finally, the boat probably should house two individuals; the person holding the paddles and controlling the boat’s movement and the musician playing the flute or the ancient stringed instrument, Guqin. How about placing the boat to the left; that will enable us see the occupants better.

These are not strongly held views because artistic freedom trumps all other considerations!

With best wishes.

[fwang2450]

Thanks for your feedback. Big changes are not possible, like moving some elements around. What can be done is shrinking or expanding them, adding more details or layers of frosting. Removing an element is possible. Some do like the boat and want to have it removed. Adding people to the boat or to the garden has been ruled out due to the difficulty of change at this stage.

I will pass your comments on to the team.

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This is like de-ja-vu all over again! I did a double take when my browser picked this up on eBay. It is part of an Imperial Jingdezhen porcelain eight-plate series depicting “Scenes from the Summer Palace”. This was designed by Zhang Song Mao and the plate produced in 1989.  This particular plate is #5 in the series. Looks similar to the scene depicted on one side of the 2015 Geyuan Classical Garden Medal. Did the medal and porcelain plate designers use the same source material for their design or was the medal designed from the plate’s artwork? I am not aware that the Geyuan Garden is part of the Summer Palace. Clarification needed. The colors on the plate design provide more vibrancy to what is depicted on the medal. Looks good! Attached photos provide side-by-side comparisons.

[fwang2450]

Thanks for the finding. Geyuan is not in the Summer Palace. The two gardens are not even in the same place. The Summer Palace is in Beijing, while Geyuan is in Yangzhou, more than 1000 kilometers to the south. Apparently the designer picked the plate and liked the design, and used it on the Geyuan medal. This was a project by Shanghai Mint, not sponsored by the team, and therefore the design was not scrutinized. It is a wrong medal, in that sense. The artist who designed the plate is still alive, and there may be copy right issues. We will see.