Shopping for Antique Singing Bowls: Top 5 Warnings To Consumers

Antique Singing Bowl Warnings: 

When shopping for antique singing bowls in 2024, consumers should be aware of 5 main pitfalls related to buying antique singing bowls, whether online or in person. As I'm more focused on selling the singing bowls again, I'm spending some time checking other websites to see what they are offering when it comes to "antique singing bowls." I have found that the most prominent websites are all making some major mistakes that put consumers at a disadvantage.

I hope these 5 warnings help you avoid a costly mistake. Singing bowls are wonderful and I am here to help you make the most of your experience. I have worked for 25 years creating the very best shopping experience for antique singing bowls. 

I have been the main singing bowl debunker for decades. I do not like all the lies, myths and exaggerations told about singing bowls. In my book, I call them "selling stories," and that's what they are: elaborate tales to entice. The stories are not only false, they also fall short of the real magic and amazing history of these objects. The history of singing bowls is not about monks on a mountaintop. It is about cultural sharing and many years of tradition. The sound of singing bowls is not about chakra frequencies. It is about a vibration that transforms the particles in the air while it triggers your internal wellbeing. The real story is much more wonderful than people know. Just read my book and other articles to find out.

Today there are more false stories and more confusion about the antique singing bowls than ever. One area that stands out is how people are selling "antique singing bowls." I put it in quotes, because in some cases they are not antique singing bowls at all. As I look at the most prominent singing bowl websites, I see the situation is worse than it was years ago. Please consider these basic warnings and guidelines so you can be a well informed consumer:

1. Not Singing Bowls: There are a lot of bowls for sale today that are not singing bowls. Not all bronze vessels are singing bowls. As the supply of real antique singing bowls has become limited, people have started selling other types of bowls and calling them singing bowls. The so called "stand bowls" with the brass base are not singing bowls - they are Hindu shrine offering vessels from India. Likewise, the large "ultabati" and other curved shaped vessels are not singing bowls - they are cooking pots. The "lotus" bowls are rice bowls. Other unusual shapes are water containers and cooking pots. While some of them are antiques, they are not singing bowls and many are not really antiques. Beware of any website selling a lot of unusually shaped bowls. They are not the real thing and do not produce a great sound. If you are unsure, you can use my website as a guide or ask me for a free appraisal. I'm happy to look at any bowl and tell you what it is.

2. Out of Tune Bowls: When you listen to an antique singing bowl, you are hearing multiple tones at once. They produce a low fundamental and two high harmonic overtones. The best bowls harmonize these three tones so they sound beautifully in tune. My skill has always been in choosing the most harmonious sounding bowls. I have a special skill for hearing how the three tones line up and can tell even the slightest dissonance. I chose only great sounding antique singing bowls and you can hear that yourself in my many recordings. I not only chose them for the beautiful tuning. I also feel that each one has a smooth, nice feeling vibration. Some singing bowls feel harsh or unusual. I rejected all the weird vibes and only collected excellent sounding, excellent feeling genuine antiques.  

3. Not Dated Correctly: You may already know that some "antiques" are not really antiques. Even today, there are people trying to sell new bowls as antiques, or slightly old bowls that look beaten up as antiques. Unfortunately, even prominent sellers still do this, mistaking something that looks "old" for something that is genuinely hundreds of years old. As I have always done, I still offer a free dating service and am happy to look at any bowl, preferably before you purchase it so you can avoid a mistake. 

Since my advanced dating system is uniquely derived from my own work, my dating is completely different than anything you will see elsewhere. If you look closely, you may notice there is no consistency to the attempts other people make at dating antique singing bowls. In some cases, they are using a limited system that considers the wear of the metal. I did the same thing and still use aspects of this system myself. However, dating based on the wear of the metal has always been known to be flawed. It cannot account for accelerated or decelerated wear. Also it is limited to a few hundred years, after which the wear patterns cease and a longer term aging process begins which is impossible to track. So, dating metal by the wear or by the oxidation is extremely limited. 

My dating work is based on metallurgy, which is done in laboratories with spectrography and electron microscopes. By examining the antique singing bowls with the help of scientists, I was able to create a continuous timeline of singing bowls. We did so by determining the metallurgical relationships between the antique singing bowls and other known types of bowls in the surrounding geography. We further found manufacturing techniques shared between the bronze bowl makers of different countries. I further found a continuous use of decorative motifs and adornment methods. By tracing the history of metal bowls from ancient Persia and Cambodia, we see the continuous evolution of these bronze bowls, culminating with the singing bowls which are still made today.

The other approach says, "this individual bowl looks pretty worn, I think it's 200 years old," versus my approach which says, "this bowl is a known type with shared metallurgical and cultural characteristics of these other hundreds of bowls which we have on a known timeline."

4. Dubious Recordings: I was the very first person to have a website featuring singing bowl recordings, where you could listen to each one and buy the ones you liked. Over the years, most singing bowl sellers have followed the same formula. However, the way we record them is different. I use what are called small condenser microphones and very transparent professional mic preamps. The result is an extremely accurate and transparent sound - the bowls sound exactly true to life. 

I record the bowls by striking them only one time, with the same mallet you receive with purchase. When I play them, I have to hold the bowl away from the mic to not overload it, then move the bowl closer so you can hear how it really fades out. All of this means my recordings are very true to life and accurate, with the exception of the movement closer and sometimes when I bobble the bowl in my hand. For the most part, you can tell exactly what the bowl will sound like. 

My competitors do something different: 

- some of them use digital effects to make the bowls sound a bit nicer. You can hear some compression and reverb as they add echo and reduce the scope of the frequencies so nothing stands out. Flattening the tone a bit makes it sound nicer. It makes a dissonant bowl sound less unpleasant. Adding reverb makes it sound bigger and warmer. If the recordings sound a bit muffled or overly warm, you know there has been some digital processing. 

- some try to cover the fact that their bowls don't ring very long by hitting the bowl multiple times or playing it around the rim. Most antique singing bowls ring for only 20-40 seconds. If you notice most of my bowls ring for a minute or longer. The length of tone is one of the signs of quality and one of the reasons my bowls are really the best. I hand selected each one so they are better tuned, ring longer, all have a wonderful healing vibration and amazing antique presence.

5. Damaged bowls: By 2010, I estimated that at least 25% of the available antique singing bowls were badly damaged, more than I would consider selling. Many are cracked so they rattle when played. Many have bronze disease, which is a heavy crust of oxidation that can muffle the vibration. Many have been repaired, even two bowls can be combined in major repair jobs. Each year the percentage of damaged bowls has gone up. As the supply dwindles, the bowls are picked over year after year. The best of what is available are chosen and the remainder are left to be picked over again the following year. Over time, sellers compromise and sell lower and lower quality.

This is the reason my singing bowls are so much better than others you see online. The singing bowls here are the best I retained in all my years of collecting. Other sellers have only what they sourced this year. The sort of quality I have has not been seen for years. I have been amassing this collection for 25 years, keeping only the best for the museum. You can see that the quality in the marketplace has been eroded simply by comparing my great quality to others you see online. Notice the other bowls are less symmetrical, do not ring as long, are slightly out of tune, are not as old, have heavy oxidation. In many cases they will rattle when played.  Furthermore, many repairs and forgeries were introduced in the last 10 years. Some are so good, people do not notice them.

One prominent seller has chosen to intentionally damage all their antique singing bowls. They sand the rim of all their antiques, believing it improves the rim playing. This ruins the bowl in my opinion and can distort the sound. You can clearly see the shiny rim in photos of such bowls.The rim is such an important part of what makes an antique special. Sanding it really ruins the condition and quality. Know that any time you see a shiny line around the rim, this has been altered. The antique condition is compromised and in some cases the damage hurts the sound by making the high harmonics too prominent. By contrast, my bowls are in wonderful condition. All damage is mentioned in my detailed descriptions so you know exactly what you are getting.