The specialist guide to Asian antiques and exotic home decor from the far east.

Li Songtang at his museum in Beijing, where he displays relics saved from demolition sites in the rapidly modernizing city.

Doug Kanter for The New York Times

BEIJING — The destruction of this 800-year-old city usually proceeds as follows: the Chinese character for “demolish” mysteriously appears on the front of an old building, the residents wage a fruitless battle to save their homes, and quicker than you can say “Celebrate the New Beijing,” a wrecking crew arrives, often accompanied by the police, to pulverize the brick-and-timber structure.

But before another chunk of ancient Beijing disappears entirely, a hospice administrator named Li Songtang can often be found poking around the rubble, looking for remnants that honor what was among the world’s best-preserved metropolises until a merciless wave of redevelopment gained the upper hand.

Since the 1970s, when Mao inspired his Red Guards to pummel every “reactionary” Confucius temple and Ming Dynasty statue they could find, Mr. Li has been salvaging architectural remnants and stowing them away, sometimes at considerable risk.

Manchu hitching posts. Ornate wooden doorways. A giant granite horse that graced an emperor’s palace. These and thousands of other objects fill Mr. Li’s warehouse and spill across the grounds of the hospice he runs in Beijing’s eastern suburbs.

Every item has a tale. That Song Dynasty lintel etched with a frenzy of folk scenes? Pulled from a pig sty. The lacquered screen that tells the history of a clan of scholars? Fished from the burn pile.

[Read more →]

Below is very short but useful post reprinted from Wikipedia time-lining the various Chinese Dynasties (Click on H for the history of the dynasty, and E for a table of its emperors (or other rulers).

[Read more →]

This past weekend, ACF China and  The Hutong organized a field trip for local expats here in Beijing to visit an genuine outdoor wholesale antique market, where peasants from the countryside bring un-restored antique furniture and other curios to sell to wholesalers, collectors and restorers. The trip proved a success, allowing attendees a fascinating peek directly into the hidden corners of the antiques industry. A bit dusty, a bit dirty, and situated on the far outskirts of Beijing, this market exists solely through word of mouth and is not found on any map or guidebook. Chris Buckley, owner of Torana Carpets and author of the book “Tibetan Furniture” accompanied us on our excursion and his own post about our tip on his RugDogBlog sums up our trip much better then I can:

“In years gone by furniture vendors from the countryside came right into the city to sell their furniture, but these days with increasing ground rents and lack of space in the city the trade is conducted much further out from the city, in this case about 45 minutes drive from Guo Mao. This spot is strictly a wholesale market, with unrestored items piled high in the warehouses of individual sellers from different parts of China.

In a couple of hours we were only able to scratch the surface of what is a very large market. We visited several vendors from north China (Shanxi and Inner Mongolia), though apparently there are sellers at the market from most regions. It’s been a long time since I have looked at wholesale furniture like this (the last time I looked at it seriously was back in the mid-90s) and it was reassuring to see that there is still old furniture out there! Vendors are now going a lot further afield for their old furniture than in the ’90s and many are bringing in furniture from the border regions versus the central China styles that were more common in previous years. “

Though this particular trip was not a buying trip, we will organize future excursions, buying trips and longer outings, so check back here regularly and/or on  The Hutong’s Website for upcoming dates.  Thanks to Chris Buckley for tagging along and for providing the wonderful group photos shown here.

[Read more →]

ACF China and the The Hutong will be co-organizing a field trip this Saturday morning to visit a outdoor wholesale market where peasants from the countryside bring antique furniture to sell to wholesalers, specialists and restorers. This is an extremely rare opportunity to see where antique furniture comes from and what it looks like in its original un-restored form. 100% wholesale only, this market exists only through word of mouth and cannot be found in any guidebook or map. ACF’s Roger Schwendeman will be accompanying the group as a specialists and guide as well as to answer questions about styles, origins and history.

Estimated time (including travel) will be approximately 2.5 hours total (including 20 minutes each direction of travel time). The group will meet in front of the China World Trade Center (in front of Starbucks across from HSBC) at 10 AM sharp.

View Larger Map

Space is limited for this trip and we can accommodate up to ten people only which means you MUST pre-register. Cost will include transportation. Please wear comfortable clothing which can get dirty as this market is extremely dusty.

Over the years, having spent a fair amount of time in and out of Hong Kong, it suddenly dawned on me that (up until now), this famous Hong Kong antiques street in Central, has yet to be mentioned here. Adding insult to injury, is that fact that for many years, upon my arrival in Hong Kong, I would make a beeline for this street - usually within the first day or so. For those unfamiliar with Hollywood Road (easily reached via the Central-Mid-levels escalator), this long, narrow winding street initially gained its reputation as an antiques market over a hundred or so years prior, when sailors and traders began to sell antiques and artifacts here which were collected during trips into the mainland China. Today, Hollywood Road (and the streets branching off from it)  is littered with small galleries, boutiques and  shops selling trinkets, antiques, Chinese reproduction furniture and even contemporary Chinese art. Its even reputed to be a gateway for smuggled antiquities from China. Though these days, I frequent the street less and less, I still find myself drawn to it from time to time, if only just to appreciate the wide variety of items on display here, often in very attractive surroundings.

View Larger Map

Many of the shops here seem focused on porcelain, pottery and terra cotta - with furniture coming in a close second in the remaining boutiques. Finally, a few smaller nooks and crannies deal in the range of tourist trinkets from calligraphy brushes to Maoist memorabilia, to imitation jade figurines. Thick lacquers, glossy finishes and a distinctly southern Chinese red, black and gold themes are everywhere. Table lamps made from deep sea green ceramics are if anything both stylish and contemporary. Shop owners are a mix of feigned politeness to genuinely interesting to locals who seemed to pride themselves on rudeness. Surprisingly often the most interesting and pleasant conversations can be had not with shop owners but basic employees who, free from the pressure of having to “make a sale” chat freely about what little they may or may not know about the item and or its history.

A bit of ancient, a bit of old, and plenty of “just made yesterday.”

As is throughout much of this industry, “old” is a term used freely, and taken with a grain of salt, this may mean anything from “just made yesterday” to hundreds of years old. Some are forthright, though unfortunately, some sellers can be downright unscrupulous. When asked “how to tell if its old or not” one seller of “authentic Tibetan antiques” smiled and gave me the following response:

“If you study these things and understand the product and the industry you will know just by looking at the piece. But if not, then you really need to just trust me on this. See if the piece “speaks to you or not” and go with what your true feelings tell you.

Uh huh…

Now this is starting to sound all too familiar. There were some pieces in the shop that were indeed antique, but having sold the same reproduction Tibetan sideboard many times over right down to the same coloration and motif, this piece was definately talking to me and it was screaming “bullsh*t!” Nevertheless, this line must work for them, as a two 40ish western women were in the process of deciding which cabinet they would purchase for their home (at a mere bargain price of 80,000 Hong Kong dollars!!!). If it were me, I would definitely do a bit of reading first before I plunked down my eighty thousand… And that’s not to say that every shop on the street is this way. But be aware - there will always be some with loose ethics.

This might also explain why some sellers become visibly nervous the moment I start inspecting undersides, opening doors and rubbing my hands over edges and joinery. One shop keeper immediately asked me if I was from “such and such society in London!” From this, I have learned that if I want to pose as a tourist, I better act like one!

[Read more →]

When people hear the word “antiques,” they often relate it to something their grandmother might enjoy - in other words old-world - musty - boring! Which is why we will be starting a new course on Chinese antiques at The Beijing Hutong School. We want to be able to share some of the rich textures, colors and wonderful materials which we come across in our daily quest for the the cool, the unusual, the unique and the beautiful.

Insiders Guide to
Chinese Antique Furniture

From finding and restoring antique furniture to collecting and integrating into your home. An informal, non-stuffy and hands-on, insiders look at the world of Chinese antique furniture. Some of the topics we will cover will include:

1. Intro to Periods and styles including regional styles
2. Field trips to un-restored antique furniture market to see where antiques are collected from
3. Construction, repairing, restoring and joinery
4. Lacquers and finishes
5. Woods and materials from stone to rare woods to brass hardware.
6. Collecting and buying.
7. Fakes and authenticating
8. Field trip to furniture factory

For more information on these workshops including class dates and times, costs and how to reserve your spot, please visit The Hutong website directly at:

http://www.the-hutong.com

I get so backed up with blog posts, because there is so many interesting and fascinating things to see and talk about. And being detailed oriented, I really want to spend the time to talk about each item in detail, the history behind it, where it comes from and all the other details that make it all so interesting. Unfortunately work calls and so I must to sometimes, just simply be brief! With that said, here is an interesting photo I took in the factory a few days ago. This is a Chinese mahjong table which needed to have the top floating panel replaced due to cracking or some other form of damage. What makes this so interesting, is how they accomplish this.

In order to match the color of the original wood, the replacement panel must be lightened. To darken a piece there are several methods the most common one being a coat of stain or varnish.  However, in this case the issue is the opposite: the wood here is too dark to match the base color of the original material. So how does one lighten the color of wood? By applying an alcohol based solution and some heat, the color of the wood will essentially lighten thus matching the color of the original color.

The end result would look something like this table sold by EMWA  Furniture in Australia.

If you are in an antiques, furniture, or any other import related business, then the packing and shipping of your goods will be a crucial logistical detail which should not easily be overlooked. Since many buyers are unable to maintain a permanent office in China, and surely not individual buyers purchasing for their homes, they logically often turn to third-party packing agents to fill this void. Yet, packing and crating can determine if your item arrives without a scratch or rather in several pieces. Ocean Shipping might be a short direct hop across seas or turn out to be a  long delayed drawn out journey through canals and via detours. And even short term warehousing might mean either brief storage or long term loss of your product in someone else’s warehouse.

“A main issue, is with customers understanding of these providers scope of business (and their capabilities) - with the most common misconception being that these companies will take responsibility for getting your products picked up, packed and shipped out in good condition”

A read on ACF’s China’s furniture industry blog of the post entitled, “Using a consolidator for international shipping, freight, packing and inspection of antique furniture” talks at length about what to expect, what to look out for.

Read More….

The Antiques Roadshow on PBS, has some great Chinese antique-relevant episodes, particularly this one on Chinese reverse glass paintings. Even cooler is the fact you can watch these episodes online!  The Chinese reverse painted glass mirror pictured above was recently sitting in our shop before it was purchased by someone who is now enjoying it in their home. The one below is the one appraised in the show.

APPRAISER: “When you look at these, you’ll notice that there’s not that much attention to detail. The face is very white. Probably all made up with powder. Generally they wear very elaborate hair dress and earrings, and you can see the elaborate earrings. She’s holding a fan– that’s not unusual– and seated in an old chair. The details of the new ones are not that different from this. That’s why I have to point out to people, when you see one of these, you can only assume it’s new. Before you buy it, have a specialist look at it, because the new ones are quite deceiving. This has all the earmarks of an old one. One thing that’s interesting is you can see her arms through the dress. ”

APPRAISER: “Very unusual to find pairs. Could go for as much as $5,000.”

GUEST: “Wonderful. ”

APPRAISER: “This by itself is worth $1,500 to $2,000. “

GUEST: “Wow. That’s amazing. ”

To watch online: 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200702A16.html

Another super quick post but a link worth including here: http://www.oxfordauthentication.com/

One thing to be aware of is that thermoluminescence testing works only with fired items, in other words items like porcelain, earthenware or bronze. If you don’t know what thermoluminescence testing is have a quick read of the snippet below from their website:

Thermoluminescence

A small sample of ancient pottery will emit a faint blue light when heated to a sufficiently high temperature. This faint blue light is known as thermoluminescence, or TL and is over and above the background red glow that is emitted from all materials. The TL can be measured using a sensitive detector known as a photomultiplier tube. The intensity of the TL signal is proportional to the time which has elapsed since the clay was last heated, normally since the kiln firing, and can be used to date when the object was last fired.

Sampling

Photo: Pottery
Only a fully qualified representative of Oxford Authentication Ltd is authorised to take a sample of powder. 100mg of powder is removed from an inconspicuous area of the object. Usually more than one sample is taken from each piece to verify that all the parts are of the same antiquity. Each piece is fully documented and photographed at the time of sampling, and the samples are sent to our laboratory in Oxfordshire for analysis.
[Read more →]

(This is a section from a previous post which I think is worth separating out here, since I am asked this question quite a lot).

Where can I find more detailed information on Chinese porcelain, pottery and ceramics?

Chinese porcelain, Oriental ceramics and Japanese porcelain and pottery are all unique entire subjects of their own and it would be impossible to cover even just a fraction of the material available here today. Rather then attempt to do so, I will suggest a few quality resources,

The website of Koh Antique in Singapore, has one of the most comprehensive sources of information on Chinese porcelain and ceramics, all meticulously described and cataloged in an easy to read format.

This is the most comprehensive source of information on Qianjiang porcelain on the internet.  Besides giving a brief history, more than 350 pieces of Qianjiang porcelains have been cataloged.   The pieces are displayed based on chronological order and also by artist.  

Topics covered, range from “Symbolism on Chinese Ceramics,” to more specific information on time periods and individual styles such as Ming Blue and white, Celadon wares,  Qingbai, Shufu, Ding and Cizhou wares. Particularly useful is his dictionary of Chinese symbolism and motifs used in ceramics.

 Also invaluable for anyone wanting to understand the progression of styles between the various periods, is their Chart (available here) showing the development over time of the different Chinese porcelain types.

The other site most commonly cited on this topic is Gotheborg in Sweden, run by Jan-Erik Nilsson. The “Marks on Chinese Porcelain” page is probably the first stop for anyone trying to identify a piece.

The other two really major resources here are the “Antique Chinese and Japanese Pottery and Porcelain Discussion Board” and the links list which is very, very extensive.

This diagram from an article on the Woodworkers Institute website
shows how traditional Chinese joinery works

There is a great article on the Woodworkers Institute website which I stumbled upon quite randomly. I was actually researching some information on construction techniques for making dining room extension tables, when “lo and behold” I came across this two part article entitled Poetry in Wood.

“One of the reasons why joints were so complex in China, Japan and Korea was the climate. There are huge changes of temperature and humidity throughout the whole of central and south-east Asia, and many European colonists discovered the furniture they took with them from Europe fell to pieces because the animal glue softened in the high humidity and heat. The woodworkers of those countries found that it was necessary to make interlocking joints which had mechanical strength rather than rely on glued joints. I recall the world-record price 18th-century mirror that I worked on at Sotheby’s, pictured left, which had tiny bamboo dowels joining the 6mm-thick backboards rather than the European equivalent which would be a rubbed joint.

This is not to say that oriental furniture was not glued; it just didn’t rely so heavily upon glue. There is a similarity with 18th-century Continental chairs which tended to be pegged and glued as opposed to British ones which were only glued. One could perhaps argue that Continental colonial furniture stood up to high humidity better than British furniture! One of the roles of the furniture restorer in China was to replace and tighten the dovetail wedges used when the joints in furniture had become loose. One needs to remember that the whole assemblage of a piece of Chinese furniture depends upon the interlocking joints for stability. The top is not glued up, followed by the legs being glued on etc. The frame holds the top boards, the legs then anchor the frame, and the dovetail wedges anchor the whole lot together.”

The article is not bad, though the best part is the excellent diagrams illustrating some of the standard Chinese joinery techniques used in Chinese furniture making.

The full article is here: “Poetry in Wood” on the Woodworkers Institute website .

Oriental silk rugs (and their cousins, Persian rugs) are simply gorgeous. They allude to a certain tasteful style which is both exotic and luxurious, yet at the same time classic and timeless all at once. Open any magazine with interior photos and there is probably at least one image in there with (what else, of course) a stunning silk carpet gracing the very center of some room. Its just a great look. Which is probably why we do get inquiries from time to time about oriental rugs (and Tibetan carpets as well) as I would like to think our customers have a great sense of taste and well, other then beautiful antiques, what else alludes taste like a silk carpet? With that said, I must admit most are just inquiries and we have not done huge amounts of business in the way of these beautiful carpets. Why? Because, I think because carpets are really a unique “beast of their own” and require their own brand of detailed knowledge and extensive expertise. There is so much to know about them - so much to learn.

The photograph above from Rug Rag, shows artificial silk on the left and genuine silk to the right.

It was while doing some of my own research on the web, when I stumbled upon Matthew and David’s site: Rugrag.com which is exactly that: knowledge and expertise. It’s really quite a good research tool for someone wanting to learn about rugs (and in a very hands on / practical sort of way, I might add).

I emailed them off a few of the rug photos shown below and they quite quickly came back to me with this:

“These are some great looking rugs. From what I can see in these provided images, these are all 100% hand knotted rugs. Really nice looking pieces with good color and design. They appear to have silk-like pile and perhaps silk-like foundation as well: without too much detail in the photographs, they do seem to be some nice examples. ”

I haven’t even begun to really dig into all the information on their site, which is so, so comprehensive, but a couple of posts I really like and thought were very useful were:

• Is it really a Chinese Silk Rug?
• Fibers: Is your Rug Real Silk?
• Introduction to Commercial Chinese 90 Line Oriental Rugs and Carpets
• How To Tell if a Rug is an Oriental Rug or Other? (Tufted vs Machine Made)
• Open Back Chinese Rugs and Carpets Vs. Closed Back

With silk carpets and rugs one factor in pricing is knot count (KPSI) which is a measurement of the number of knots per square inch. It can get a little confusing here though since different geographic locations may use varying measurement (I think this is the case in China…) so again, click over to their site for a much better explanation of what knot count is then I can give.

A close up of a very beautiful 500 knot rug

There are also a few pretty nifty tools on their site, like the Stain Removal Guide for carpets. You select what the stain was caused by, click “remove” and it then gives instructions on potential ways to remove the stain. As an example, I choose “beer” and up came a nice list of what steps to take.

Even Better! An add on bonus is, it passes no judgment on you either for doing something stupid like spilling beer on your gorgeous silk carpet.

http://www.antiquefurniturefair.com/

We have a fair amount of Tibetan painted furniture, though most of it is not genuine Tibetan antique furniture (despite what many claim). Most are either new or vintage, though we do sometimes find real antiques. In general, it tends to be a bit too bright and colorful for my tastes, though nevertheless, Tibetan furniture does have its place and if the designs and motifs are subtle, they make beautiful accent pieces.

A while back we had a few old door panels which went out in a container, and surprise surprise, I stumbled upon our doors, modified into dining tables and coffee tables on the website of J.W Kinsey’s Woodcraft (Cabinetry/custom furniture makers) in Modesto California. Looks like Josh Kinsey did a pretty nice job of both preserving the original items and turning them into something more functional in the home.

He did a nice job of solving the issue of how to mount the door on the frame without modifying it (notice the strut across the bottom of the door) . The table bases seem to work.

The rest of the photos are on their site at:

http://jwkinseyswoodcraft.com/jwkinseys%20woodcraft/projects%20portfolio/Portfolio.html