Perhaps this is merely a cautionary tale about buying stuff from China. In further investigation, I prepared a tank circuit with a (nominally) 100 uH inductor, and a 0.088 uF capacitor (nominally 0.1 uF, also from China). Oscilloscope reported a resonant frequency of roughly 59 kHz which, calculation suggests, indicates a value of about 82 uH for the inductor. Testing of this same inductor with the LCR45 gave 78 uH, significantly less error (relative to its measured, not nominal value) than the 9-20% deviation reported above (and given the potential error of the capacitor, not all that far from the 1% error specification for the LCR45 at that value).
I suppose that I should not be surprised, given my tendency to buy stuff off ebay, that
all of the inductors I have in my kit measure below their nominal value. In life (I'm retired, now) I was a cook. In one memorable incident, I purchased an inexpensive "1 cup measure" that was manufactured in China. It had all the proper markings on its clear plastic: 1/4c, 1/2c, 3/4c, 1c, and marks at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ounces. Unfortunately the actual volume at the 1 cup mark, compared with other, more reliable measures, was somewhere above 9 fluid ounces.