Patengruppe

Einladung an „Neu und Alt“ in Peking

Dienstag, 09. März 2010,

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. ISB Talk – Making Your Move Go Smoothly – Roger Schwendeman explains what antiques can and cannot be take away from China
2. Sitting on history: Antique expert Roger Schwendeman reads Chinese history by touching and feeling it

Reactionaries? Make That ‘Collectors’

By DAN LEVIN Published: February 3, 2010
Original article online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/garden/04chinese.html

TREASURE HUNT A worker at the ACF China furniture factory with a refurbished trunk.

CONTESTANT No. 3, a portly man in suspenders named Cui Xiaosong, clutched a golden mallet and gulped like an executioner having second thoughts. As a guest on China’s wildly popular antiques reality show “Collection World,” Mr. Cui knew he might have to get violent before the next commercial break. The victim? A delicately painted vase he had brought to the show, which he believed to be from the Qing dynasty and worth about $30,000.

“If it’s a fake, will you smash it?” asked the program’s white-gloved host, Wang Gang, as Mr. Cui faced the studio audience and three guest judges.

Mr. Cui nodded. The audience quieted down and Mr. Wang used the final minute to impart a bit of wisdom about collecting antiques in modern-day China: “Just as China opened up, so too is collecting about opening the mind to understand the outside world.”

It was hard to tell whether Mr. Cui was listening, but he certainly heard the host announce the judges’ verdict: “It’s a modern reproduction!”

Mr. Cui winced as he swung the mallet, shattering the vase — and with it his dreams of the wealth it might have brought at auction. Cue the instant replay.

Some four decades after the Cultural Revolution, when many of the country’s centuries-old treasures were defaced or destroyed as a result of Mao’s command to eradicate “the four olds” — old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits — China has reversed its attitude toward antiques. Ming dynasty porcelain vases, 19th-century hardwood furniture and even early 20th-century calligraphy ink pots have become popular status symbols for an emerging middle class eager to display its new wealth and cultural knowledge. The antiques market has become so hot, in fact, that it has given rise to a new category of must-see TV here.

In recent years, “Collection World” and a dozen other similar shows — with names like “Treasure Appraisal” and “Art Collector” — have been luring both serious collectors and armchair enthusiasts, offering information on collecting trends and appraisal techniques, and encouraging a new wave of treasure hunting.

While some in the antiques world laud these programs for turning antiquing into a national pastime, others are skeptical of their educational value. As Yan Zhentang, the president of the Chinese Collectors’ Association, noted, “These shows certainly help get ordinary people interested in antiques, but the bottom line is they are just entertainment, and they make mistakes.”

Daniel Newham, a British expatriate who has become a popular television personality in China, said he was dismayed by the lack of professionalism when he served as a celebrity judge on an episode of “Collection World.”

“The other judges were pretty awful,” Mr. Newham said, adding that one of them admitted to him that he had only recently started working in the field of antiques and did not have the skills to properly appraise the featured items. (The show’s executives declined to comment and refused to allow Mr. Wang, the host, to be interviewed.)

Nevertheless, the shows have attracted a devoted following. Zhou Yajun, a long-distance truck driver and collector from Hebei Province, near Beijing, said he watched “Collection World” and other antiques shows every week, testing his appraisal skills against those of the judges in the hope that he could learn to outwit the counterfeiters who prey on the country’s amateur antiquarians.

Mr. Zhou, 38, said he began collecting antiques four years ago, and his hobby quickly became all-consuming. “For a week after I bought my first antique, I would hug it to sleep, I was so excited,” he said, showing off photos of his favorite purchases on his cellphone during a morning of poking around Panjiayuan, Beijing’s vast antiques market.

Mr. Zhou said he had spent the equivalent of $12,000 so far feeding his addiction, a hefty sum for a man who earns less than $18,000 a year. But spending so much time alone on the road takes an emotional toll, and collecting has become a way to fill the void.

“If I don’t see my antiques for a few days, I miss them,” he said.

“The problem is, everyone wants to collect now, so there’s not much of the real stuff left,” he added, eyeing some rusty coins advertised as 100 years old before shaking his head and moving on to the next vendor.

Distinguishing real Chinese relics from their latter-day replicas can be a daunting task, especially since forgers have access to the same televised information that collectors do. “I used to go to the countryside to buy antiques,” Mr. Zhou said. “But lately I’ve found the peasants are buying fakes and making up a story to pass the pieces off as authentic.”

Perhaps wisely, Mr. Zhou has come up with his own way of evaluating authenticity: “After I buy something, I put it in my home for two days,” he said. “If I start to like it, it’s real. If not, it’s counterfeit.”

THE Chinese government has become increasingly assertive about claiming ownership of its national heirlooms. It condemned Christie’s last year for auctioning bronze sculptures looted from the capital’s Old Summer Palace in 1860 and, more recently, it sent outgovernment officials and art historians to inspect the collections of global art institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian for cultural artifacts that might have been illegally obtained from China. And so, many private collectors have come to regard their passion not just as a smart investment, but as a patriotic duty.

“Chinese people are becoming richer and need to be responsible for our dignity and history,” said He Shuzhong, the deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage’s legal and policy department and the founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, a nonprofit organization. “How can China rise peacefully if we cannot protect our culture?”

But many in the industry acknowledge that the profits driving the antiques trade are a more powerful incentive than nationalism.

As Yan Xubao, 31, a dealer at the ACF China furniture company in the Gaobeidian market on the outskirts of Beijing, observed, “Without a free capitalistic spirit, these antiques would still be buried in the countryside somewhere.”

Mr. Yan is a regular at many of the city’s antiques wholesale markets, where peasants bring old broken furniture, farming tools and stone carvings collected from the outer provinces. Such items are bought by urban restorers, like those at ACF, who resell the repaired pieces, often at a huge markup.

While the global economic crisis has affected ACF’s wholesale business, which often exports to retailers abroad, its retail sales have remained relatively robust because of the strength of the Chinese economy and the antiques industry’s growing grassroots base in China, said Roger Schwendeman, founder and one of the company’s managing partners.

Mr. Schwendeman, an American who has worked in China’s antiques trade for eight years, said Chinese buyers are still paying top dollar for jade and furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties made from rare hardwoods like yellow rosewood and ebony, which most foreigners ignore.

“Western buyers ask about history, while Chinese are interested in the value of the material,” he said, over the noise of hammering and sawing, as a trio of workers restored an ornately carved rosewood cabinet at his factory outside Beijing.

Many of those same foreigners who bought up troves of China’s antiques in the 1980s and ’90s are now seeking out the increasingly wealthy mainland Chinese buyers, Mr. Schwendeman added. “They know the money and passion are in China.”

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. ACF China appears on China Central Television’s “Culture Express” program
2. CHINA PASSA A DAR VALOR A ANTIGUIDADES
3. ISB Talk – Making Your Move Go Smoothly – Roger Schwendeman explains what antiques can and cannot be take away from China

Por DAN LEVIN

PEQUIM – Cerca de quatro décadas após a Revolução Cultural, quando muitos dos tesouros centenários do país foram desfigurados ou destruídos graças à ordem de Mao de erradicar “os quatro velhos” -velhas ideias, velha cultura, velhos costumes e velhos hábitos-, a China inverteu sua atitude em relação às antiguidades.

Vasos de porcelana da dinastia Ming, móveis de madeira de lei do século 19 e até mesmo tinteiros de caligrafia do início do século 20 tornaram-se símbolos de status de uma classe média emergente, ansiosa para ostentar sua nova riqueza e seus novos conhecimentos culturais. O mercado de antiguidades virou tão disputado que deu lugar a uma nova categoria de programas de TV imperdíveis na China.

Nos últimos anos, uma dúzia de programas com títulos como “Mundo do Colecionador” ou “Avaliação de Tesouros” tem atraído colecionadores sérios e entusiastas amadores, oferecendo informações sobre tendências e técnicas de avaliação de objetos e incentivando uma mania de caça a tesouros.

Os programas atraem audiência fiel. O caminhoneiro e colecionador Zhou Yajun, da Província de Hebei, próxima a Pequim, disse que assiste a “Mundo do Colecionador” e a outros programas sobre antiguidades todas as semanas, testando sua habilidade de avaliação contra a dos jurados, na esperança de aprender a levar a melhor sobre os falsários que ludibriam os amadores das antiguidades no país.

Zhou, 38, disse que começou a colecionar antiguidades quatro anos atrás. “Depois de comprar minha primeira antiguidade, eu ia dormir abraçado a ela por uma semana, de tão empolgado”, disse, mostrando fotos de seus achados favoritos em seu celular durante uma manhã passada vasculhando a imensa feira de antiguidades de Panjiayuan, em Pequim.

Zhou já gastou o equivalente a US$ 12 mil para alimentar seu hobby -um montante alto para alguém que ganha menos de US$ 18 mil por ano. Mas passar tanto tempo sozinho na estrada cobra um preço emocional do caminhoneiro, e seu hábito de colecionar acabou se tornando uma maneira de preencher esse vazio.

“O problema é que, hoje em dia, todo o mundo quer colecionar, então não sobram tantos artigos genuínos”, acrescentou ele, olhando algumas moedas enferrujadas anunciadas como tendo cem anos de idade, antes de sacudir a cabeça e passar para a barraca seguinte.

Zhou criou sua maneira própria de avaliar a autenticidade dos objetos. “Compro uma coisa e a deixo em minha casa por dois dias”, explicou. “Se eu começo a gostar do objeto, é porque é legítimo. Se não gosto dele, é falsificado.”

Como observou Yan Xubao, 31, vendedor da empresa de móveis ACF China: “Sem um espírito capitalista livre, essas antiguidades ainda estariam enterradas em algum lugar da zona rural”.

Yan é presença constante em alguns dos mercados de antiguidades de Pequim, onde camponeses levam objetos de mobília antiga quebrados, ferramentas agrícolas e entalhes em pedra colecionados nas Províncias mais distantes da capital.

Os artigos são adquiridos por restauradores urbanos, como os que trabalham para a ACF, que revende os objetos restaurados, frequentemente a preços mais altos.
Roger Schwendeman, fundador da ACF China, é um americano que que trabalha no comércio chinês de antiguidades há oito anos. “Os compradores ocidentais costumam perguntar sobre a história de um objeto.

Já os chineses se interessam pelo valor do material”, disse ele, falando alto para ser ouvido em meio ao som de martelos e serras, enquanto três artesãos restauravam uma armário entalhado de pau-rosa.

Muitos dos mesmos estrangeiros que adquiriram tesouros de antiguidades chinesas nos anos 1980 e 1990 hoje procuram compradores chineses, cada vez mais ricos, na própria China, disse Schwendeman.

“Eles sabem que na China há dinheiro e paixão por antiguidades.”

Folha de São Paulo, segunda-feira, 22 de fevereiro de 2010

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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纽约时报:寻宝!寻宝!古董收藏热席卷中国

美国《纽约时报》2010年2月4号文章：反动派？还是 叫“收藏者”吧 记者：丹-莱文（DAN LEVIN）

崔晓松（音）是3号参赛者，他身穿吊带裤身材有些发福，手里抓着一把金锤，像个要改主意的刽子手那样吞着口水。作为中国最火爆的鉴宝类节目《天下收藏》的 嘉宾，崔先生知道下一段广告之后，他不得不面临惨烈后果。受害者是什么？一件上了釉的优雅的花瓶，那是他买来参赛的，他以为是清朝货，能值3万美元。

“要是赝品，你会砸碎它么？”带着白手套的节目主持人王刚问道，此时崔先生正面对观众席和三位评委。

崔先生点了点头。观众安静了，王先生最后又透漏了一点关于现代中国收藏古董的知识：“随着中国的改革开放，收藏也要开放，去了解外部世界。”

很难说崔先生这时是否听进去了，但他肯定听到了主持人宣布评委的判决：“这是件现代仿品！”

随着他举起金锤击碎花瓶，崔先生面部抽搐了，他本该在拍卖会得来的财富梦也破碎了。

文革40多年后，中国对这些古董的态度来了个180度转弯，那时，毛泽东命令破四旧，破除旧思想、旧文化、旧风俗、旧习惯，结果就是这个国家许多好几百年的文物被破坏。现在，对于新富起来的急于展示自己财富和文 化的中产阶级，明朝的瓷器，19世纪硬木家具甚至20世纪的砚台都成为身份的象征。文物市场变得 火热，甚至一种新类型的电视节目也开始出现。

近些年，《天下收藏》和一批类似节目，比如《鉴宝》、《艺术收藏》不光吸引了专业收藏家还包括不切实际的狂热爱好者，这些节目提供收藏趋 势和鉴宝技巧方面的信息，激发了新一波寻宝热。

收藏界有些人称赞这些节目将收藏推动为全国性的休闲活动，其他人则质疑其教育价值。中国收藏家协会会长闫振堂说，“当然，这些节目让普通人对古董 产生了兴趣，但根本上他们就是娱乐性节目，他们会犯错误。”

英国人牛汉生（Daniel Newham）现在是中国流行的电视名人，他说自己在一期《天下收藏》作名人嘉宾裁判时，由于专业知识的缺乏而感到心慌。

“其他评委太糟糕了，”他补充说，其中一位还对他承认最近才开始进入古董收藏领域，没有合格的鉴定古董的技术。（节目制片人拒绝就此发表评论并不允许 主持人王刚接受采访。）

无论节目怎样，还是吸引了一位热心观众。周亚军（音）是河北省一个长途货车司机和收藏者，他说他每周都看《天下收藏》和其他文物鉴定类节目，测试他的鉴宝 技巧，希望能从专家那里学到知识，识破那些造假者的伎俩，正是他们在掠 夺刚入门的古董爱好者。

38岁的周说他4年前开始收集古董，这个爱好迅速变得很耗费金钱。“我买了第一件古董之后的一周都抱着它睡，太兴奋了，”他给记者展示手机里珍藏品的照片，他正在北京最大的古玩市场潘家园逛。

周说他已经花了差不多1.2万美元来满足自己的爱好，这可是笔大钱，他每年收入还不到1.8万美元。但老是一个人开车在路上很没意思，收藏成为填补空虚的 办法。

“我要是几天看不见我的藏品，就很想念，”他说。

“问题是现在谁都想收藏，所以真货也没剩多少，”他补充说，他盯着广告上那些有100多年历史已生了锈的钱币，摇了摇头，朝下一个摊位走去。

要把真正的中国文物和近代仿品区分开，那可是令人畏惧的任务，特别是造假者和收藏者一样，可以获取同样的电视节目传播的信息。“我过去常常到乡下买古 董，”周先生说。“但最近我发现农民开始买来假货，然后编故事把假货当真品卖出去。”

或许变得豁达了，周有了自己的鉴宝办法：“我买了东西后，放家里两天，要是我开始喜欢了，那就是真的。如果不喜欢，就是赝品。”

中国政府也开始越来越坚定自己回收流失文物所有权的信心。政府谴责佳士得公司去年拍卖1860年流失的圆明园兽首，近期还派出官员和艺术史学者检查全球博物馆的收藏品，包括大都会和史密森尼 （Smithsonian）博物馆，看是否有从中国非法获得的艺术品，许多私人收藏家开始注意到他们的热情不仅仅是明 智的投资，也是爱国的责任。

“中国人越来越富有，需要对我们国家的尊严和历史负责，” 何戍中说，他是国家文物局政策与法规司副司长，同时也是非盈利组织北京文化遗产保护中心创始人。“如果我们不能保护我们的文化，中国怎么能和平崛起？”

但许多业内人士认为古董带来的利润比爱国热情更能刺激他们。

31岁的严旭宝（音）是ACF中国家具公司的销售商，他认为“没有自由的市场精神，这些古董还会被埋藏在乡下的某个地方。”

严是市内许多古董批发市场的常客，那里有农民卖些破了的旧家具、农具和石雕，都是从外省收来的。这些东西被城里像ACF公司这样的维修商买走，他们再把修 好的重新卖掉，通常都会加价很高。

虽然全球经济危机影响了ACF的批发生意，他们以前常常出口到国外的零售市场，公司创始人罗格?施文德曼（Roger Schwendeman）说,但由于中国强有力的经济和古董在中国草根阶层的根基，零售额相对保持强劲。

施文德曼是个在中国古董贸易行干了8年的美国人，他说中国的买家对玉器和明清时代的硬木家具肯花大价钱，比如紫檀木和乌木，这些是大部分外国人所忽视的。

“西方买家询问历史，中国人则对价值感兴趣，”他说，

许多外国人在上世纪八九十年代购买了中国古董，现在正遇到越来越多有钱的大陆买 家，施文德曼说，“他们知道钱和热情都在中国。”（编译：齐磊）

原文参照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/garden/04chinese.html

2010-02-23/联合报/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陈世钦 原文请见2月23日纽时周报一版下

Sources:

http://big5.china.com.cn/gate/big5/art.china.cn/zixun/2010-02/20/content_3384851.htm

http://www.jizhe.cc/news_view_106977.html

http://www.antiquerue.com/viewthread.php?tid=8223

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. ISB Talk – Making Your Move Go Smoothly – Roger Schwendeman explains what antiques can and cannot be take away from China

The chairman of a major pharmaceutical company and his employee died in an explosion caused by a “chemical experiment gone wrong” at the businessman’s residential villa. Police found an instruction book of ozonizer as well as fragments of oxygen cylinders on the fourth floor, suggesting a chemical experiment was in progress. Zhang’s family confirmed he often carried out tests on the fourth floor of the villa. Many chemical materials were stored inside the Zhang residence, police said. Zhang was also an enthusiastic antique collector, who owned a private museum in Taizhou. According to a local media report, Zhang tried to make the antiques he owned appear older, using chemicals, and subsequently sold the pieces off for a profit.

Obviously creating fakes comes at a (heavy) cost. I have had this book called The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals sitting in the office for quite some time which I was thinking to put to go use. However after reading this, I think I will think very carefully, before I cook up any of these recipes,.

The original article reprinted here:

The chairman of a major pharmaceutical company and his employee died in an explosion caused by a “chemical experiment gone wrong” at the businessman’s residential villa in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, last Friday, local police said yesterday.

Police said preliminary investigations indicate that the chairman of Taizhou Nova Medicine Chemistry Co., surnamed Zhang, along with one of his employees, was conducting an experiment on the fourth floor of his villa in the city’s Huangyan district when the explosion occurred.

Both men died on the spot.

According to witnesses, Zhang and his employee were lying dead on a lawn near the villa soon after they heard an explosion.

Police said the “massive blast” most likely threw the two men out of the window.

Police found an instruction book of ozonizer as well as fragments of oxygen cylinders on the fourth floor, suggesting a chemical experiment was in progress.

Zhang’s family confirmed he often carried out tests on the fourth floor of the villa.

Many chemical materials were stored inside the Zhang residence, police said.

Zhang was also an enthusiastic antique collector, who owned a private museum in Taizhou.

According to a local media report, Zhang tried to make the antiques he owned appear older, using chemicals, and subsequently sold the pieces off for a profit.

The report said Zhang had been caught selling fake antiques in Beijing in 2002.

Police said they are continuing an investigation to confirm the cause of the explosion.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. ISB Talk – Making Your Move Go Smoothly – Roger Schwendeman explains what antiques can and cannot be take away from China
2. Blurring the line further… How to tell if its a genuine antique?
3. Germany’s fake terracotta warriors – seems even the museums get duped sometimes

Dear ACF customer,

Beijing has received heavy snow fall and record setting low temperatures over the past week. This, in addition to the closures of many roadways and expressways, has effected customers and businesses equally, in terms of road closings, transportation delays and/or reduced working hours. In keeping with the above, we would like to remind our customers that we also are subject to “mother nature” and consequently during this period, we anticipate minor delays and reduced operating capacity.

In practical terms, this means the delivery dates for any in-progress orders (meaning, currently in our production cue) may potentially be delayed by up to three to five working days. Newly placed orders (orders placed during this period) will not be effected, however we do ask customers to anticipate a slightly extended turn around time. We will of course, work to provide the best service in the fastest manner possible and will handle each order on a case by case basis.

For further status updates please  check the News & Events section on our blog at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/

For those outside of China who would like to know about the recent snowfalls more information can be found here:

BBC News: Beijing officials close schools and mobilise residents to clear roads after the heaviest snowfall for nearly 60 years.

Record Snowfall blankets Beijing.

We thank you for your support and continued business and look forward to working with our friends in this new year.

Roger Schwendeman
Managing Partner
ACF China Home / Millstone Trading Co.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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Original article published August 18th, 2009

You’re tired of seeing your Ikea desk in every other Shanghai home, so you’ve decided to find something unique–a conversation piece. Luckily, Shanghai abounds with places selling all types of antique furniture, but there are some ground rules to finding real deal antiques.

First, research and figure out what you like. Are you drawn to the simplicity of Ming era design, the intricate decorations of the Qing Dynasty or the hipness of Shanghai’s art deco period? Sui Jingjing, an antique expert and head of client services at Chong Yuan Auction House, recommends wandering around the large curio markets. “Yun Zhou Curio Town (88 Damuqiao Lu) and Zhong Fu Curio Center (542 Fuzhou Lu) are great because there are many shops with a wide selection.”

If you have more specific tastes and money to spend, go to a reputable antique store. For general Chinese antiquities, the formerly stateowned Shanghai Antique and Curio Store (192- 246 Guangdong Lu, Tel: 6321-4697) is a reliable choice. Hu & Hu (No. 8, Lane 1885 Caobao Lu, Tel: 3431-1212) offers high-end provincial pieces (ranging from ¥25 to ¥68,000) with great English-language service. For cool art deco pieces, head to Shanghai Art Deco (111 Baise Lu, Tel: 5436-0728).

When looking, there are no guaranteed ways to spot a fake. However, there are a few simple warning signs. “The easiest way to spot a fake is if you go to a curio market and you see the piece everywhere,” says Roger Schwendeman, who runs one of the industry’s most informative blogs (www.antique-chinese-furniture. com/blog) and is the managing director of a famed Beijing antique furniture sourcing company. His advice? Take your time in several shops before making any purchase.

Schwendeman also recommends looking for logical wear and tear. Most counterfeiters will be smart enough to wear down pieces to make them look old, but the wear and tear of a fake will generally be even throughout the piece. Look for individual spots on a piece that would get a lot of daily use–a foot rest on a chair, for example. In addition, if you find a piece with perfect carvings or decorative paintings, chances are you’re being duped. During the Cultural Revolution, most furniture with any sort of decoration was defaced.

Once you’ve purchased your dream piece, it will take more care than modern furniture. “Don’t place it under direct sunlight or near a heating system, as this is likely to cause the wood to shrink and crack,” advises Chi Fan Tsang, Senior Specialist in Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art at the famed auction house Christie’s. “Also, make sure to wipe the furniture with a dry cotton cloth, not a wet rag,” she adds.

Most importantly, buy a piece because you love it, not because you are looking to hit the jackpot. “The chances of finding anything rare or amazing is almost zero. If you want to strike gold, you are wasting your time,” Schwendeman warns.

Porcelain: China’s China

Chinaware has been around longer than China itself. As a result, there are hundreds of styles, periods and techniques. Not surprisingly, antique chinaware shopping can be overwhelming for the uninitiated. Before even hitting the stores and markets, Schwendeman recommends picking up a comprehensive coffee table book on the subject, but adds that there’s no need to be picky. “If you’ve read one, you’ve read most of them,” he says. There are also several Internet forums with tons of information, such as www.gotheborg. com and www.koh-antiques.com.

“For chinaware, you have to think about the shape, the clay, the glaze and the technique,” Sui explains. “My favorites are Song Dynasty chinaware. They are very simple, but the form is beautiful and elegant.”

Once you develop a knowledge base and a personal taste, get out there and start shopping–and you have the advantage of timing on your side. “From last year, the antiques market cooled off a lot. Now is actually one of the best times to purchase antique [chinaware],” explains Qi Dole, a Chinese chinaware expert and author of a forthcoming book on the subject called The Porcelain Road. “In Shanghai, one of the places I can recommend is Shanghai Antique and Curio Store (192-246 Guangdong Lu, Tel: 6321-4697). The prices there may not be the best, but the value they give is accurate.”

For markets, check out Cang Bao Lou and Hua Bao Lou (457 and 265 Fangbang Zhong Lu, respectively, Tel: 6355-2722, 6355-9999) near Yu Gardens or, for a destination outing, wander around the antiques market and little shops on Duolun Cultural Road, a walking street in Hongkou District. But don’t expect to waltz home with a genuine antique. It’s much harder to spot fake chinaware than fake furniture. “Check and compare reference books for similar pieces that are either in museum collections or have been sold at auctions in the past,” recommends Chi.

You might also want to go to an auction house or a museum to see if you can handle some real pieces. “When you see real pieces you get a better sense of when pieces are fake,” explains Schwendeman. In addition, for Imperial- style porcelain, hold it up to the light and check for a high translucence. Some pieces are nearly paper-thin.

Once you’ve brought your piece home, make sure to have special stands made for display, otherwise you’re risking breakage, warns Chi. If you decide not to display your porcelain, she recommends getting a padded box for storage.

Make sure to ask the antique dealer about a piece’s history if it takes your fancy. Usually the more passionate a seller is about the story behind the piece, the better the chance of it being real. And, of course, a conversation starter isn’t worth much without a story.

Jade: Finding the Green Light

If you’re in the market for antique jade, chances are you’ll find it near impossible to authenticate the age of a piece. After all, the stone itself is millions of years old. However, there are some simple ways to check if you are indeed buying jade and not some other less valuable material.

Yang Yang, the owner of jade boutique Ni (No. 4, Lane 254 Nanchang Lu, Tel: 5306-6295, by appointment only), says to burn the jade with a lighter. If it’s real, it won’t emit any smell, but if it’s fake, it will usually smell like burnt plastic (don’t worry, it won’t harm the stone).

For jade bracelets, most stores will have a special stone to test authenticity. When struck against a real piece of jade, the stone will produce a sound like a wind chime, but if the piece is fake, the sound will be dull.

She recommends heading to Fei Cui Yuan (514 Huaihai Zhong Lu, Tel: 5383-8099), a small shop that has reasonably priced jade with spectacular carvings. Although the Yu Gardens area, especially near Cheng Huang Temple, is renowned for jade shops, Yang warns that most pieces will be heavily overpriced.

As for taking care of your jade, it is a very durable material. In fact, it is one of the hardest stones in the world, but just make sure not to bang it hard against anything or it could shatter.

By Jordan Calinoff

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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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.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. Beijing Field trip: Outdoor Wholesale Chinese Antique Market Tour
2. Insiders Guide to Chinese Antiques: A new workshop at the Beijing Hutong School
3. Weekend shopping at the PanJiaYuan antique market in Beijing

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.
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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.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. Weekend shopping at the PanJiaYuan antique market in Beijing
2. Insiders Guide to Chinese Antiques: A new workshop at the Beijing Hutong School
3. Buying exotic hardwoods in Beijing: A visit to the Dong Ba Timber Market