This fall of 2011, Roger Schwendeman and Chris Buckley, specialists in Chinese Antiques, will be conducting a unique series of classes on Chinese Antiques (course listing below). These sessions are intended to provide pointers for negotiating the maze/minefield that is the Beijing antique market and for finding genuine items of good quality. The first sessions begin on Friday 23rd September 2011 starting with antique furniture related topics.

All classes are from 10.30am to 12pm approximately. Allow longer for field trips for traveling time. Classes are limited to 12-15 people per session depending on venue. Offsite field trips are limited to 15-20. Seats are first-come first-served so if you have interest please RSVP your intention without delay.There is a fee of 200RMB per class.

If you would like to sign up for a session please click here to sign up:

http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/events/

chrisbuckley888 (at) Hotmail.com
roger (at) antique-chinese-furniture.com  (or call 13051440767)

or contact us here

Chinese Furniture (01)  - Classroom session

Roger will introduction to buying antique furniture in Beijing, covering types of furniture, wood and surface finishes, distinguishing new from antique, “what’s hot” in the furniture market, ordering new/reproduction pieces.

Chinese Furniture (02) – Field Trip

Roger will host a guided trip to one of Beijing’s “industry only” antique furniture markets to see “furniture in the raw”, with the chance to pick out unrestored furniture for later restoration. Roger is well known for these trips and will take you to places that other furniture dealers would like to keep secret.

Tips for Collecting Antiques in China (Roger and Chris)

Roger and Chris share their experiences in collecting antiques in China, and in particular in Beijing. Topics include:

• • a brief introduction to north China (Neolithic and bronze age cultures up to the present day)
  • types of antiques available in Beijing markets
  • genuine items versus fakes
  • collecting strategies
  • prices and market trends
  • how not to get “taken for a ride”
  • exporting your antiques (exportable items and problem areas)
  • packing and shipping your antiques. (With practical examples)

Collecting and Decorating with Antique Rugs (Chris)

Types of antique rug available in Beijing, including Tibetan, Mongolian,
Xinjiang and other old rugs, distinguishing the main types, judging age and
quality, distinguishing natural and synthetic dyes, prices, spotting fakes.
Illustrated with many examples.

Minority Textiles from Southwest China (Chris)

Textiles from minority peoples in Southwestern China, including Miao, Dong,
Bouyi, Li of Hainan and other groups. An introduction to types and techniques
including batik, ikat, supplementary weft and embroidery and distinguishing
different types, judging age and quality. Illustrated with many examples.

Coming in the Spring: (schedule TBD)

• Introduction to Ceramics (1) Neolithic to Yuan
• Introduction to Ceramics (2) Ming to present day
• Chinese tea utensils
• Tibetan Art
• Chinese Furniture II
• Furniture Field Trips

About Us:

Roger Schwendeman is a furniture dealer, restorer, expert and designer. He has been working in furniture industry in Beijing and South China for the last decade and probably has more hands-on experience with old furniture than any other expat in Beijing.

Chris Buckley is the owner of the Torana Tibetan Rug Gallery in Europlaza and a weaving workshop in Lhasa. He is also a collector of textiles, porcelain and Tibetan art and author of a book on Tibetan Furniture. He has lived in China
since 1995.

Getting to Gao Bei Dian

Take the Jingtong expressway east to the Gaobeidian exit (next exit past Sihui East). Take the exit and go south at the light onward past the car dealership, the gas station and over the small bridge. You should see a reservoir and large Chinese pagoda on the right. Continue on this street for a few minutes (past the newly built Chinese style buildings on the right) until you see the Chinese archway on the left side, just before the railroad tracks. Turn left onto the Gao Bei Dian furniture street and continue to shop number 184 on the north side of the street. The Chinese name of the shop is Ming Zheng (see image below). You can also call 13051440767 for directions.

View ACF China @ GaoBeiDian Furniture Street in a larger map

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.

Related posts:

2. Books about collecting Tibetan Antiques and Tibetan furniture
4. ISB Talk – Making Your Move Go Smoothly – Roger Schwendeman explains what antiques can and cannot be take away from China
6. Learn Chinese Language Characters for Furniture

Absolutely fascinating article from the New York times in 1908, reporting on the sale of The Sarah Pike Conger collection of oriental antiques. Containing priceless artifacts, even by 1908  standards, its in today’s terms that the prices paid are even more eye catching:

• Elephant’s trappings from the imperial elephant stables:   $150.00
• Large gold alloy cast bell from  Temple Of Agriculture $560.00
• Chinese executioner’s sword engraved with dragons:   $25.00
• Antique cloisonné enamel palace seat:   $540.00

A bit of historical background.

Mrs. E. H. Conger (Sarah Pike Conger) was the wife of Edwin H. Conger, who was the “Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China” (in other words the ambassador to China) from 1898 until his resignation in 1905.  An author who wrote several books about her time in China, and experienced the turbulent time of the Boxer Rebellion first hand, having been besieged for 55 days in the British legation quarter in 1900. She was also a friend of the Empress Dowager Cixi and some items in her collection were gifts from the empress herself.  In fact, the only known image of Cixi touching a foreigner is of the two of them together.

In many circles however, the auction was highly controversial. The Washington Herald’s 1908  announcement of the auction was less then flattering in it’s assessment and notes with irony that as she was the ambassadors wife, the items even entered the country tax free.

The soldiers who stole these things were glad of any market for they could carry little away with them, and in the far east today, stories are still told, with many a chuckle, of ignorant soldiers selling diamond studded watches and priceless bronzes for a handful of Mexican dollars

Meanwhile the fact of the sale must give our Chinese friends food for thought. It is hard to see how the morality of the case can be defended on any grounds. Without mincing words, the property that is to be put up at auction is stolen poperty, and the shame of this looting rests, in a measure, upon us all as American citizens.

Meanwhile the Evening Times has this to say:

The Conger  collection, which was sold  in New York last week was  advertised as being  chiefly loot  taken in Peking  after the  allied armies ocupied  the  city.  E H. Conger, of Iowa, was then United States Minister to China. He did not himself steal the  imperial jade, ivory and bronze pieces, or the  silks and embroideries;  but the thieves who did steal them found a ready market at  the  United States Minister’s quarters under the flag of the United States. The minister showed his shrewdness by keeping a record of the distinguished owners of the stolen property. It was a good  investment.

Such things must have been cheap when the allies were looting Peking but what do the American people think of one of  their ministers raising  the sign over his door: “Cash for stolen goods here.”

“What must the Chinese people think of a nation that permits it.

Of course this was not the only controversial auction at the time. Herbert G. Squiers, who was the First Secretary of the American Legation in Beijing was said to have amassed such an extensive collection of antique Chinese porcelain that when he eventually left Peking, it filled several railroad carriages. When the Squiers Collection was sold in 1912 it too was also accused of being looted goods.

CHINESE ANTIQUES SOLD.

New York Times - Feb 20, 1908

Auction of effects of former Minister Conger’s Widow.

The hope of geting Chinese loot brought a large throng yesterday to the first day’s  sale of the Oriental collection of Mrs. E. H. Conger, widow of the late Minister Plenipotentiary to China, at the American Art Galleries. There are nearly a thousand lots, all told, and the sale goes on every afternoon this week. Brasses, bronzes, idols, cloisonne, and weapons came first on the list. The sale was held in one of the small galleries, and every seat was filled. Standing room was at a premium.

The prices were good throughout, and ranged from $5 up to more than $300. The Metropolitan Art Museum and the Peabody Museum of Salem, Mass., were among the purchasers. The biggest piece of loot brought the highest price of the day. It was a big cast brass bell, 12 Inches high by 9 1/2, in diameter, which was taken from the Temple Of Agriculture during the Boxer rebellion in 1900. It was bought by K. Slater for $560.

It is a beautiful bell, of a rich colored brass, in which there is said to be gold alloy. It was sold with the original red rope by which it hung in the Chinese temple. It belonged to the k’ang-hsi period (1662-1722), and was rung once a year when the Emperor, who is supposed to be particularly the patron and father of those who cultivate the soil, ploughed a piece of land in public.

Two old and interesting pieces, which went to the same purchaser for $1,010 ($505 each), were cast iron temple gongs. These bore the marks of dedication in relief. They were used in the Buddhistic services, and the two together make  chimes very rich, clear, and of long continuance.

The largest purchase by the Metropolitan Museum was that of a part of an elephant’s trappings, which came from the imperial elephant stables, and was used during the reign of the Emperor Ch’ien-lung. It was a, great ball-shaped ornament of brass, 16 feet high by as many in diameter, in a design of dragon and cloud scrolls and mounted on a circular base, also of brass. It sold for $150. The museum also bought an antique brass Chinese ink box for $14, an antique brass, square-shaped bowl for $20; a miniature hand mirror of the Ming period, polished brass, for $10; another larger one of the Hsuan-te period for $30, and an interesting antique brass kettle for heating wine for $30.

Interesting among the armor sold was a big Chinese executioner’s sword engraved with dragons, a double-handed grip, and a bright red scabbard, which went for $25. Another without the scabbard was bought by the Peabody Museum for $16. The Peabody Museum also bought an old Chinese sword with an odd blade, a cavalry sword, Boxer swords and pikes, and a couple of wooden weapons from the Sulu Islands.

An antique cloisonné enamel palace seat, in the shape of a barrel, brought one of the highest prices of the afternoon, going to Henry F. Ross for $540. On one end was a mark of the Ming period, and the cloisonne was of the reign of Ch’in-t’ai. Mr. Ross also bought for $205 an antique Chinese incense burner, oblong, on four feet and chiselled in designs of the dragon and Svastika, of the Wan-li period.

A. E. Durrant paid $180 for a palace bell of cast  brass with chiselled designs,  mounted in a teakwood frame, and $200 for a large antique brass vase. Mrs. Henry Elling paid $180 for a tripod incense burner of brass ornamented in engraving and relief with designs of the sacred lotus.

A quadrilateral-shaped Chinese enamel-covered vase with tree peonies and chrysanthemums in natural colors on a turquoise blue ground went to Geraldyn  Redmond for $390. It had brass mountings and cover, the latter surmounted by the sacred fungi.  The receipts of the afternoon’s sale , were $8,057 .

Original print of 1908 article in the New York Times can be found 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.

Related posts:

2. Reduced prices – Sale of gorgeous antique walnut alter tables, armoire, benches from Gansu province.
4. Chinese buyer who refused to pay for looted bronzes weeps as he realizes that his credibility is shot.
6. thermoluminescence testing for porcelain, ceramics and bronzes

Old houses in China's countryside are being dismantled and reassembled for the nation's new rich.

Very interesting article in the China daily talking about the resale market for Ming and Qing dynasty Chinese traditional homes which are disassembled, transported, repaired and then resold to restaurants, clubs or wealthy collectors.  Now this is an interesting topic which I could easily get lost in as it just touches on so many interesting elements from Hui Zhou architecture to Chinese antique restorations to wooden architectural carvings.

The article  is basically a slimmed down version of another Chinese language article floating around the net. Its not a bad article, though it leaves out some of the more interesting details like such as how the industry works.

For example, the middlemen buyers tend to be divided up amongst two categories: those with ample capital and those who as essentially un-financed. Essentially those who are “un-financed” will buy the house and resell it right away to recoup their investment at a 20 to 30% profit margin. “Financed sellers” are those who have enough spare capital to buy the house, undertake all the repair and restoration work and then resell it in restored form at a 40 to 50 % profit.

The other interesting aspect left out is detail on how much time and effort goes into the whole process.  One home took ten workers several weeks just to disassemble and haul away it away piece by piece in a dozen different large trucks. Quite a task considering each individual piece from support beams to wood carvings to stone had to be meticulously tagged and documented in order to be reassembled off-site. Before restoration can even start, a methodical checking of each piece had to be made to determine which wood must be replaced, which carvings repaired etc. Then there is the restoration and reassembly itself – a complex process involving carpentry, masonry, painters and wood carvers.

An old chinese courtyard home being reassembled and restored

What’s interesting is the trade has moved online as well, with websites listing both complete homes (in restored and un-restored form) as well as individual salvaged components like ornate wooden architectural carvings, brick carvings, stone and even reclaimed wood.

The China daily version is below – still a fascinating read. For the brave, here is also the more complete Chinese language version of the article.

Show homes
2011-07-28 08:02
By Xu Junqian (China Daily)

Old houses in the Yangtze River Delta’s countryside are being dismantled and reassembled for display in the gardens of the nation’s new rich. Xu Junqian reports.

At a hidden warehouse, on a vast expanse of open moorland in Dongyang, Zhejiang province (在(浙江)东阳市歌山镇西宅村), a group of middle-aged carpenters are busy working on a pile of pillars and corbels, beams and windows. Spread over the 10,000-square-meter clandestine locale that has no name or address – marked only by a muddy path – they have been carefully dismantled from century-old houses scattered throughout the Yangtze River Delta countryside.

Once reassembled, they will move into the gardens of the country’s nouveau riche.Tired of filling their working and living rooms with antique vases, ink paintings, calligraphy and 19th-century hardwood furniture, the emerging upper class is looking for something new to show off their wealth and cultural sensitivities.

And buying these quaint houses that date back to as early as the Ming (1368-1644) or Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, is becoming a popular choice.

The trend has been growing in the recent years, Zhang Zhu’an (张祝安), co-owner of the nameless warehouse site, says. “More people, including the not-so-affluent, are seeing them as an investment.”

These ancient houses can range from 300 to 400 square meters, with some even reaching 1,000 square meters. While they rival the size of the buyers’ homes, these collectors’ items are mostly for display.

Zhang, a 61-year-old Dongyang native, and his partner, the main investor of the warehouse, started the business three years ago. Although the carpenter-turned-businessman sidesteps questions about how lucrative the business is, he acknowledges it has been “acceptable” from the beginning. Now, they sell one house every two or three months.

The older the house, the pricier it gets, Zhang says. “But the style of the house, its condition or the status of its former owner – say he is a famous political figure – can also add to the value.”

With a team of about 10 carpenters, who double as porters, Zhang’s warehouse is the biggest of its kind in Zhejiang and possibly in the country.

Over the past few years, more than 10 houses have been relocated from remote villages to be reassembled and refurbished in the warehouse and then dispatched to the properties of affluent buyers in Hangzhou, Shanghai and even as far away as Beijing.

After restoration, this Qing Dynasty courtyard will sell for more then ten million RMB

Currently, there are nine houses here, some of which are ready to be “taken away”. Most are typical southern Chinese residences, featuring upturned eaves, elaborate woodcarvings and thick and straight pillars.

“This one is not that ancient. It dates from the end of the Qing Dynasty,” says a 49-year-old carpenter, surnamed Pan, referring to a door from a typical Anhui-style house, currently the most popular variety on the market, that he has been working on for five weeks.

“I heard the whole house was bought for several hundred thousands yuan. But this door alone can be sold for more than 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) after I’m done with polishing it,” Pan says.

There are about five or six similar warehouses in Dongyang, a city best known for its ancient craft of woodcarving, Zhang says. Just a few meters from his site is a similar, but much smaller, warehouse with four dismantled houses.

“People may think it is easy to start a business like this because of a huge supply of carpenters here,” Zhang says. “But good houses are becoming increasingly hard to find, as they have either been taken apart by collectors or demolished by their owners to make way for new modern buildings.”

Zhang says that while his special “hunting crew” travels the country looking for houses, he also networks with furniture recyclers and secondhand storeowners in the area.”If they come to know of someone who wants to sell his house, they will immediately call me,” Zhang says, adding that he only goes for structures that are at least 70 percent intact.

“For the province’s growing number of rich people, such houses represent the ultimate collectors’ item,” says Yu Feng, vice-chairman of Collection Association Club of Yiwu, the city neighboring Dongyang.

“After all, the vases, paintings and precious chairs need a place where they can be put. And what better choice than a heritage house,” Yu says.

The club, founded in 2005, has about 300 members in Yiwu. As the world’s largest small commodity center, it attracts hordes of the parvenus.

Every year, they host exhibitions to showcase their art collections. An antiques market that can accommodate 500 stalls also opened earlier this year.

“I can’t say how many people are doing this (collecting houses), as we don’t have such figures in the club,” says Yu, whose own collection includes five houses.

They occupy a 2,000-square-meter space that the logistics tycoon has specially rented.According to some industry insiders, a Yiwu businessman has 100 such homes from all over the country in his collection.”If you start early enough, you can get a house for no more than 50,000 yuan,” Yu says.But with more people entering the market, the average price has easily doubled.

By Xu Junqian (China Daily)

The profit for middlemen like Zhang has dropped from 50 to about 30 percent of the price.For Yu and others like him, the biggest headache remains finding a place for their house collections. “After all, it’s not that easy to buy land. And once you move a house, it’s not likely you can do so again,” Yu says.

But even as some worry about where to put their gigantic collections, others have found ways to make money out of them.
Zhu Youfu, a retired local official in Yiwu’s Fotang village has turned his collection – worth millions of yuan – into a tourist attraction in his hometown.

With a nearly 1,000-square-meter house built at the beginning of the 1800s and several other smaller ones, the site has become a recreational complex that also offers dining, accommodation and sightseeing.
Yang Handong, meanwhile, is more generous with sharing his collection.Yang is the owner of Hujiang Group, the country’s biggest thread producer, which is also based in Yiwu.

Apart from an underground museum that is home to 300 old vases and paintings located below the teahouse he runs, the antiques aficionado has also built a park behind his factory for his seven heritage houses. Admission is free to the public.

The purchase of old houses can be controversial.

Chen Rongjun, director of Dongyang Relic Protection Office, says that although it is legitimate to buy these houses not categorized as “relics under protection”, the houses, which are one of the few legacies of the local culture, become “dead” once they leave their original locations.

According to the local government, only 207 homes in the area are categorized as “relics under protection”, leaving 1,560 houses labeled as just “relics”, for not meeting one or another of the protection category standards.

“Homes with historical value are disappearing fast. More villagers are willing to exchange their homes for money to build new villas, and we are not there to stop them,” Chen says.But Zhang, the middleman, is defensive. “We are far more professional than the owners while dealing with these houses, which are usually in a seriously dilapidated state when they come to us,” he says.

“It’s true we are making money from them but not by tearing them down,” he adds. “Rather, we are restoring them to their former glory, which is definitely better than letting them suffer further wear and tear.”

Other online resources:

	The Hong Kong Heritage Museum’s exhibition of Huizhou vernacular architecture. There is a great book from this exhibition available at the museum shop, however I have never seen it for sale online.
	The Peabody Essex Museum’s “Yin Yu Tang” is a qing dynasty home on permanent exhibit at the museum. The home can be explored online via a very cool interactive guide.
	b2bgujian.com and szgujian.com are Chinese websites specializing in the sale of reclaimed and rebuilt traditional chinese homes (the sites are in Chinese only). The forum section is quite fascinating..
	A google image search in Chinese for Huishou style wood carvings.

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.

Related posts:

2. A to Z: Restoring chinese wood carvings, wooden screens and carved architectural elements.
4. The 47,000 USD dollar tooth brush holder – Chinese porcelain brush pot in owners bathroom sells at auction for staggering sum.
6. Carved wooden architectural elements salvaged from traditional Chinese homes gain a new lease on life…

On to the latest “record price” headline, this one picked up from the BBC. Whats amazing is the guy walked in with the vase stuffed inside a cardboard box!!!

Cardboard box Chinese Ming vase ‘may fetch £1m

A blue and white Chinese Ming Dynasty vase that arrived at a Dorset auction house in a cardboard box is expected to sell for more than 1 million.

The 11.5in (29cm) vase is the largest ever recorded from a rare group of early Ming “moonflasks” from 1403-1424, Duke and Son auction house said.

The Dorchester-based firm said it was believed to be one of the most exciting works of art to come to light in years.

The seller, a retired Cadbury’s worker aged 79, does not wish to be named.

‘Spectacular find’

A Duke’s spokesperson said the man “lives modestly and has been interested in antiques for many years”.

Guy Schwinge, of Duke’s, said: “When my colleague initially showed me what had arrived in a cardboard box I could not believe my eyes.

“The vase is in perfect condition and it is amazing to think that it has survived unscathed for almost 600 years”.

Duke’s consultant for Chinese Works of Art is Anthony du Boulay, a scholar and author, who said the vase was “a spectacular find”.

The vase will be sold at auction in May.

Original BBC story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-12355404

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.

Related posts:

2. Chinese vase valued at €150 sells for €110,000 at auction
4. Qianlong vase initially valued at $1300 sets record price of $69 million at auction
6. Cool Finds: A look at some 2000 year old, Han Dynasty earthenwares

Credit: Reuters/Bainbridges

Neglected Family Vase Sets 66 million Record for Chinese Art at Auction

Apparently the  18th-century  Qianlong-era porcelain vase was discovered while cleaning out a modest London suburb home. Other then knowing it was acquired in the 193o’s, the anonymous family who owned it knows little else as to its origins. According to the auctioneer Bainbridges, the vase itself dates from the  Qianlong period (1740′s) and would have  most definitely been fired in the imperial kilns before finally residing in the Chinese Royal Palace. According to the Antiques Trade Gazette, Bainbridges is a small suburban auction house which normally deals with cheaper antiques, equipment and lawnmowers.  Not bad, considering they stand to reap a 13.8 million dollar buyers premium from the sale. Purchased by a Chinese bidder on behalf of an undisclosed buyer, the sale price was not only more than 40 times the pre-sale estimate, but it set a new record for a Chinese work of art. But wait – it gets better.  “About 30 years ago it was shown on a television show called Going For A Song where an expert appraised it at $1300 as a “very good copy.” Poor guy – I definitely would not want to be him right about now.

Regardless of whatever price was paid, the real or fake, the vase really is absolutely stunning. Beautiful!

The downside? A tax bill totalling a few million.

• £43million Chinese vase initially valued at £800
• Sensational £43m record for Chinese work of art in Ruislip
• Old vase fetches record $69M at auction
• Chinese vase fetches record $69 million in UK auction
• Original post on the Bainbrides blog announcing the sale

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.

Related posts:

2. Chinese vase valued at €150 sells for €110,000 at auction
4. The 47,000 USD dollar tooth brush holder – Chinese porcelain brush pot in owners bathroom sells at auction for staggering sum.
6. Record Snowfall blankets Beijing – Record Snowfall blankets ACF

An antique Chinese pot sold at auction for £30,000 (47,000 USD) was used for years by its owner as a toothbrush holder! Gordon Murray didn’t think the ceramic writing brush holder was worth much and reckoned he’d be lucky to get £400 for it. So he was left stunned when it fetched the princely sum at auction in Edinburgh.

Gordon, who runs Atholl Antiques in Aberdeen, cleaned up the pot for it to go under the hammer at Lyon and Turnbull on Wednesday. He said he began collecting antiques as a boy in Aberdeen in the 50s and his passion continued to grow.

He said: “On Saturdays I’d head off into the antique shops in town, including Young’s in Belmont Street and Alec “Cocky” Hunter’s in Castlegate, where I would buy what my meagre pocket money could afford.”

One thing for sure is there are definitely hidden gems out there waiting to be found! Here’s another one from the Dailymail from about the same time: Antique Chinese bowl valued at just £600 by auctioneers fetches £38,000… after bidding war breaks out among buyers.

Have you got one of these in your attic?

This antique Chinese bowl, which had a guide price £600, sold for more than £38,000 (60,000 USD) at auction yesterday.

The blue and white porcelain pot, which is believed to be a 19th century copy of one made in the Kangxi dynasty of 1662 to 1722, was bought by a Chinese man who lives in Britain.

Unassuming lot 379, which is eight inches wide and depicts a man ploughing a paddy field with water buffalo, attracted a surge of interest from its homeland after the auction catalogue was put on the internet.

Auctioneer Steven Moore, of Anderson & Garland, Newcastle, said: ‘I wasn’t surprised by the price, as I knew the amount of interest it had generated.

‘Chinese people are trying to find and collect their heritage.

A Chinese man living in the UK bid the highest price at this week’s auction.

Mr Moore added: ‘There is the possibilty that people have these things or things similar to this sat in their house and it is very possible that they are also worth this amount of money.

‘This is definitely the best time to sell Chinese porcelain.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310188/Antique-Chinese-bowl-valued-just-600-fetches-staggering-38-000-auction.html#ixzz11YAvdWzG

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.

Related posts:

2. Chinese vase valued at €150 sells for €110,000 at auction
4. Collecting & Buying Antique Chinese Rose-medallion Porcelain
6. Where can I find detailed information on Chinese porcelain, pottery and ceramics?

Chinese Art Dealer in Unpaid YSL Bronzes Furor Weeps as he realizes that his credibility is shot.

March 10 (Bloomberg) — Cai Mingchao (蔡铭超) the Chinese art dealer who is refusing to pay for the $40 million Qing bronzes he successfully bid for in the Yves Saint Laurent auction, wept when he realized that his credibility was shot and he may now have to close his business.

Cai, 44, spoke in an interview after turning away hundreds of calls from reporters about the Feb. 25 sale. He was praised in China for walking away from the bronzes, which were plundered by foreign troops, and has been condemned by other dealers. In the world of high-end art sales, where millions of dollars worth of items may sell on the basis of a phone call or handshake, defaulting is seen as unprofessional.

“This has damaged me: I have lost the business I love,” said Cai, in his office in the southeastern city of Xiamen. Cai said he had bid with the intention of paying, then had second thoughts and decided it’s wrong to do so. He again denied acting in concert with China’s government.

The Christie’s International sale is renewing debate in art circles on the moral and legal right of auction houses to sell controversial items, including those that some nations regard as looted. Cai’s default may also heighten calls for more checks on bidders. Art transactions were worth 43.3 billion euros ($54.5 billion) in 2006, according to a 2008 report by the European Fine Art Foundation.

International Law

Christie’s has always held that the sale of all of the Saint Laurent items, including the sculptures, was legitimate because the items had legal titles. Not so, said an ad hoc group of lawyers in China that in January threatened to sue Christie’s for offering the animal-head bronzes, saying it contravened international law.

The mid-18th-century sculptures of a rabbit and a rat were taken from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing by invading French and British soldiers in 1860.

The 1995 United Nations Unidroit Convention limits claims on stolen cultural artifacts to within 50 years of their theft.

On Feb. 23 in Paris (Xiamen is seven hours ahead of France), a court ruled that the sale could go ahead. Hours later, Cai called Christie’s Shanghai-based business development director Wang Jie from his favorite leather couch on his dark-wood, second-floor office and registered to bid.

“I thought to myself, ‘It’s impossible to find these items again,’” Cai said.

No Documents

On the afternoon of Feb. 25, Cai said, Wang called to say Christie’s agreed, after an internal meeting, that he would have three to four months to settle the bill if he won. None of the agreements was documented, Cai said. That contravenes Christie’s own terms-of-sale rules, stated at the back of its brochure, that “a prospective buyer must complete and sign a registration form and provide identification before bidding.”

Christie’s Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Kate Malin would not verify Cai’s identity and said the company would not comment on the bronzes sale because of client confidentiality.

It’s not uncommon for auction houses to let their best customers and those they consider wealthy bid on big-ticket items without asking guarantees or proof of ability to pay, said George Sutton, a Minneapolis-based analyst with Craig-Hallum Capital Group, who covers Christie’s rival Sotheby’s. French billionaire Francois Pinault owns London-based Christie’s.

“Something like this isn’t good for the reputation of the auction house,” said Sutton, “And will cause the need for change. This suggests possibly that change should happen.”

“These days,” said Cai, “you can’t even get a loan of 10,000 yuan ($1,289) without pledging your house or car as collateral, and I could just bid on an item worth hundreds of millions of yuan with one phone call.”

Buzz Cut

Cai’s black, unbuttoned choker-collar suit hung loosely on his tanned 5-foot-2-inch frame. He wore a buzz cut, rubber-soled black canvas shoes and a three-day-old moustache. Cai moved as quickly as he spoke, with a Fujian accent that flattened loud vowels. He smoked three Kent cigarettes in 30 minutes, sometimes struggling to hold back more tears.

Cai, a native of Xiamen, wouldn’t say how much he’s worth. The third of a cloth merchant’s four children, he said he inherited some money and made the rest in stocks and real estate. Cai said he left Xiamen’s art school at 18 and started in business by renting a store trading cloth. In 2005, he opened Xiamen Xinhe Art International Auction Co. after leaving the state-backed Xiamen Auction Co. where he said he started the art-sale department.

Ming Buddha

In October 2006, Cai made headlines when he paid a record HK$117 million ($15 million) for a Ming Dynasty Shakyamuni bronze Buddha at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. Cai said he settled the bill in three months and it shouldn’t matter how he did so. He said he still owns the Buddha, which is kept in a safe.

“He has a very good reputation with art dealers,” said Roger Keverne, 62, head of his namesake gallery and chairman of Asian Art in London, an annual exhibition by the city’s galleries. Keverne said he’d met Cai in Beijing and Hong Kong in the past few years. “I found him charming, his manners immaculate. I have only heard good things about him.”

At about 2 a.m. Xiamen time on Feb. 26, the last day of the Saint Laurent sale was under way in Paris. With seven lots to go before the bronzes came up, Cai got a call from Christie’s Asia Deputy Chairman Ken Yeh to prepare to bid. Cai watched the auction live from a Phoenix Television broadcast. First came the rat head. Cai looked on as the bidding on Lot 677 climbed from 9 million euros to 10 million euros to 11 million euros.

“Just as they were about to close the deal, I went in,” said Cai. “I felt if I didn’t bid, I will lose it forever.”

Bid Applause

He offered 12 million euros. A rival countered with 13 million euros, so Cai went up to 14 million euros — the final bid. Applause broke out. Next up was the rabbit head. Cai’s 14 million-euro bid beat a rival’s 13.5 million euros and he secured the second bronze.

“At that time, maybe I didn’t consider if I could pay for them,” said Cai. “At the most, I would sell some of my ceramics to pay for them.”

Hours after the auction ended, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage responded to the sale with a circular requiring Christie’s to detail the ownership and provenance of artifacts it brings into or out of China. When Cai heard of this, he started to question his purchase.

“I felt an internal struggle,” he said. “I felt, ‘If I paid this money and I can’t get the goods, what do I do?’”

Unpaid Adviser

That afternoon, Cai called and asked for a meeting with Niu Xianfeng, a Beijing-based deputy director of Ministry of Culture affiliate National Treasures Fund, which helps retrieve lost relics abroad. Cai has been an unpaid adviser with the fund since December 2007.

Cai said he kept calling Christie’s Wang between Feb. 26 and March 1 seeking the bill and the condition report of the bronzes. Cai said Wang told him Christie’s was chaotic and that people were away and that he should try later. Cai said he didn’t get any documents from Christie’s about the sale. Christie’s Malin declined to comment about this.

Cai came to think that accepting the bronzes was like buying “two time bombs and placing them at home, not knowing when they will explode.” Asked if he considered that before bidding, Cai said he couldn’t tell what prompted him to, just that he felt “mixed emotions” when the sculptures were on the block.

On Feb. 28, Niu and colleague Wang Weiming arrived at the Xinhe office and Cai told them he won the auction.

Officials ‘Shocked’

“They were shocked,” Cai said. “Then they said, ‘Good, good, we thought foreigners had bought them.’”

Niu didn’t answer his cell phone seeking comment.

Cai said he asked Niu and Wang to organize a news conference in Beijing under the National Treasures Fund’s banner to end speculation on who bought the bronzes.

After his March 2 news conference, Cai had the art world speculating on his motives and whether he had state backing. That night, he flew back to his office in Xiamen, a city of 2.5 million people just across the sea from Taiwan, sat on his couch and wept.

A March 4 Xinhua commentary compared Cai’s default with not paying ransom to kidnappers. “Paying would encourage more such stealing, and make the robbers happy,” the commentary said.

Berge’s Choice

Pierre Berge, partner of the late Yves Saint Laurent and the man who put the art collection up for sale, will keep the bronzes at home if they don’t sell, Agence France-Presse reported on March 3, citing him in an interview with French radio. Berge couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

“If he wants to keep them at home, let him do it,” said Cai.

Hong Kong antiques dealer Yumi Kunizuka, whose family consigned a collection in London in 1989, said this case is not so much a lesson in law and art-auction protocol than manners.

“The whole matter could have been handled with more grace and wisdom by Christie’s, Berge and Cai,” said Kunizuka. Berge could have done more for Saint Laurent’s memory by not flaunting the bronzes, Christie’s shouldn’t have agreed to auction the items and Cai was unprofessional in what he did, Kunizuka said.

Hong Kong, where the auction house and main rival Sotheby’s hold biannual art sales, is Christie’s hub for the sale of Chinese antiquities, with revenue of more than HK$1 billion last year. Including other art categories, Christie’s Hong Kong sales last year tallied $452.3 million, about 11 percent of its total.

Export License

On March 6, Xinhua said, citing Cultural Heritage Administration Director Shan Jixiang, that its circular on Christie’s “does not limit the return” of the bronzes. According to the terms of sale stated in Christie’s brochure, it’s “the buyer’s sole responsibility to obtain any relevant export or import license. The denial of license or the delay in obtaining licenses” don’t justify the rescission of sale.

China isn’t the only nation trying to repatriate lost treasures, said He Shuzhong, founder of Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, a nongovernmental organization.

Last week, the Indian government said it facilitated the return of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi’s personal effects from a New York auction after the Indian public decried the sale. Indian liquor magnate Vijay Mallya paid $2.1 million for the items, which included Gandhi’s glasses, sandals and pocket watch.

Bounds of Law

Retrieving the items should be done in a calm way that is within the bounds of law and respectable conduct, said He. Rash actions in the name of patriotism would backfire, he said.

Art-auction defaults aren’t new. In 1987, Australian businessman Alan Bond bid a record $53.9 million at Sotheby’s New York for Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises,” then a record price for any work of art, and couldn’t pay for it. The painting had to be resold.

In September last year, Sotheby’s sued Cnet Inc. founder Halsey Minor to recover $16.8 million that the auction house said it’s owed for three pieces he bought at sales. Later that month, Minor sued Sotheby’s for not disclosing that the consignor of a painting he bought owes the auction house money.

The default on the bronzes purchase raises the question of how well auction houses perform their due diligence and whose interest they represent. Christie’s brochure states it “acts as agent for the seller.”

Auction houses make most of their commission from buyers, who pay up to 25 percent of the hammer price on their purchases, as they lower or waive commission for sellers to secure the right to represent the most valuable collections.

European Auction

The dispute marred the most successful auction in Europe, with 373.9 million euros raised and 96 percent of lots sold including the bronzes. Cai’s winning bid totaled 31.5 million euros, including Christie’s 3.5 million-euro commission.

In Cai’s 2,000-square-foot office, hydraulic-powered mahogany doors opened to reveal a sanctum lined with ceramics and Buddhas dating back as far back as the 14th century.

He swiped his wallet across a section of wall embedded with an electronic lock and a secret stairway appeared, leading to an underground showroom with hundreds of antiques.

Cai said that, fearing for his reputation, he’s canceling Xinhe’s spring sale, which tallied 47.4 million yuan last year, one of the Fujian province’s biggest. The fall sale may also be called off.

If he could do it again, Cai isn’t sure he would bid for the bronzes.

“No one (in the government) knew what I was doing,” said Cai. “Even if they knew, they wouldn’t look for me. Why should I help? I am not on their payroll.”

He said he’s now trying to pick up the pieces of his life. If he ends his art-auction activity, Cai said he may focus on his real-estate and securities trading businesses.

“When I turn on my cell phone and walk out of this place, I really don’t know what kind of life I will have,” he said.

To contact the writer on the story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net

China conveniently forgets the provenance of ‘looted’ bronze heads

Hero or hooligan — opinions are divided on Cai Mingchao, the Chinese man who bid US$50-million for two bronze heads from the collection of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, but then announced he had no intention of paying for them. The Qing dynasty sculptures of a rat and a dog were looted by British and French troops from the old imperial Summer Palace near Beijing more than 150 years ago.

China says its feelings were “hurt” by the sale, but it’s arguable British and French feelings were also hurt by the incident that preceded the looting.

First, though, Cai and his “patriotic” stand. In a story carried on the front page of The China Daily, he put the loftiest spin on his actions: “The auction negated the history that the cultural relics were looted, defied the ethics of international society, and breached the rules of commercial auctions,” he said. An online survey conducted by sina.com.cn, a Chinese government-run Web site, also showed more than 70% of the netizens support Cai’s action for he had safeguarded China’s interests.

As the BBC noted, another commentator, writing in the Beijing News, also lavished praise on the bogus bidder. “Cai Mingchao’s bid was a patriotic political act to strike back at an illegal auction,” said Wang Zhanyang, a professor at the Central Socialist Academy. In a typical example of Chinese double-think, he added the art expert had not caused any trouble because the Chinese government did not recognize the legality of the sale.

Elsewhere, responses were less enthusiastic. According to Agence France-Presse, Liang Fafu, a blogger, said Cai had made the Chinese “look even worse on the international scene.”

“We come across as untrustworthy people, a bunch of con men. Who wants to deal with that kind of people in the future?”

Zhao Yu, a senior culture ministry official, told the Beijing Times Cai’s behaviour had done his compatriots no favour. “In overseas auctions… bidders usually need no deposit and simply rely on their reputation,” he said. “The fact that Cai Mingchao has gone back on his word in reality means he has undermined the credibility enjoyed by Chinese people at large international auctions.”

His muted response also has something to do with the provenance of the heads themselves. As Richard Spencer, The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Beijing, explains in his blog, “State media, while particularly sensitive to the European insult, are often rather careful to avoid hyping these items up as examples of high Chinese culture: for good reason, as they are not really Chinese, and the whole story of the fountain of which they are part is shrouded in ambiguity.”

It’s also worth recalling how the heads came to be in western hands in the first place. It’s not as if the British and French woke up one day and decided to launch an expedition to loot the Yuanming Yuan. Rather they were responding to an atrocity perpetrated by the emperor Xianfeng —  the torture of two western envoys sent under a flag of truce to negotiate, and the murder of most of their small escort of British, French and Indian troopers.

As Geremie Barmé writes in his history of the palace, The Garden of Perfect Brightness, A Life in Ruins (link through Spencer blog), “In the autumn of 1860, a delegation of English and French negotiators were despatched to Peking to exchange treaties with the Chinese court following a peace settlement that had been forced on Peking …

“After numerous prevarications, bluffs and acts of deception on the part of the Qing Court, the emissaries of the emperor … detained 39 members of the delegation. They were imprisoned in the Yuan Ming Yuan, used as hostages in the negotiations with the foreign powers, and subsequently tortured. Of their number 18 died and, when their bodies were eventually returned to the Allied forces in October, 1860, even the liberal use of lime in their coffins could not conceal the fact that they had suffered horribly before expiring.”

In giving the order to loot the palace, Lord Elgin, the British high commissioner to China, wanted to punish the emperor and his officials, not his people.  Memory of this part of the proceedings has faded from Chinese consciousness, Barmé goes on.

“Although without doubt an act of wanton barbarism, it is revealing that in popular Mainland Chinese accounts of the sackings of the palaces available to readers since the 1980s, one is hard pressed to find any mention of the atrocities committed by the Qing negotiators that led to this final act of vandalism. Nor in these popular histories are there detailed descriptions of the sly manipulations of the Qing Court in the tense days leading up to the sacking.”

National Post

awordsworth@nationalpost.com

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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.

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June 26 (Bloomberg) — Few people gave Zhao Xin a second look when he strolled into the biggest antique show in China’s coal city of Taiyuan, Shanxi, wearing straw-trimmed canvas shoes, black polyester-mix clothes, and a tobacco-stained grin.

That changed when he went to a booth run by Hong Kong dealer Raymond Chak. Pointing at Chinese gilt-bronze Buddha statues, he said, “Show me this, that, and that.” Ten minutes later, Zhao had bought about eight antiques for nearly 1.5 million yuan ($220,000). In the next hour, he spent at least another 2 million yuan on paintings, ceramics and other artworks at other booths, as bystanders looked on.

Zhao is one of the world’s biggest buyers of Chinese antiques, say art dealers like Shanghai-based Lu Feifei. He also belongs to a group of tycoons in China’s top coal-producing province of Shanxi, many of whom earned their wealth selling the fuel, and in recent years began paying top dollar for Chinese relics at auctions and galleries from Hong Kong to New York.

Reached on his mobile phone, Zhao simply said he was retired and wouldn’t say how he earned his money.

To court buyers in Shanxi — which has a reputation for being a cultural capital of sorts — about 50 of the world’s top names in Chinese antique sale flew from Hong Kong, London and the U.S. into Taiyuan to sell millions of dollars worth of ceramics, jade and snuff bottles. The city has an average per capita income of 15,230 yuan last year, and operates two flights a week to Hong Kong. Taiyuan is an hour by flight from Beijing.

Spotting Money

“In Shanxi, it’s hard to tell who the rich guys are,” said Ronald Chak, a nephew of Raymond who helps run one of Hong Kong antique dealership Chak’s Co. Ltd., which organized the Taiyuan fair. “You’d think some were ordinary folks and then you see them step into their Mercedes 500.”

“According to estimates from Artron, total global auction sales of both fine and decorative Chinese art in 2007 summed to approximately 2.3 billion euros,” said the European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) in a report published in March this year. About $500 million of items are auctioned by Christie’s International and Sotheby’s, based on company figures and estimates. The others are sold in galleries or in person.

Like diamonds, the portability of antiques make them more attractive than property or bulkier assets for buyers who have to relocate in a rush and frequently, said Stephen Vickers, chief executive of Hong Kong-based FTI International Risk Ltd. Owners could then convert them back into cash once they have settled in a new location.

Mainland Challenge

While Westerners still dominate the most-expensive segment of this market at auction, they are increasingly being challenged by buyers from mainland China, according to John Berwald, of New York-based dealership Berwald Oriental Art.

Christie’s says Americans are its biggest clients in this category of art, followed by mainland Chinese and Hong Kongers. While Shanxi buyers are new to the international art-trading scene compared with their Beijing and Shanghai peers, they are gaining a name as some of China’s fiercest bidders.

“They are a force to reckon with, no doubt about it,” said Kevin Ching, chief executive of Sotheby’s Asia, who attended the Taiyuan fair. On paper, Shanxi buyers formally accounted for just $4 million of Sotheby’s Chinese antiques at its Hong Kong auctions, though the actual figure is much larger because many bid through agents in the city, he said, declining to give specifics.

There are about 51,000 people in China who have 100 million yuan or more, according to Hurun’s latest China rich list, released in April. Of these, 1,050 are in Shanxi. The actual number of rich individuals in the province is probably more than twice the number on the list, said Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of Hurun Report, which compiles China’s rich list.

‘Hidden Wealth’

“There’s a lot of hidden wealth in Shanxi,” he said.

Zhao owns the best private collection of ceramics kept by Qing Dynasty Emperor Daoguang (reign: 1820-1850) and dealers consider him a very important antiques buyer, according to Lu.

At the fair, Zhao asked about a red-beaded bracelet Raymond Chak wore; Chak immediately rolled it off his hand and handed it over. Zhao wound the new purchase on his wrist and carried on his shopping spree.

“Come to the antiques fair now,” he said into his mobile phone. “Today is their last day and a perfect opportunity to rip off Raymond Chak.”

His posse laughed, Chak wiped his forehead and chuckled dryly.

Investment Choice

“Zhao might not know which piece makes the best investment, but his aesthetics sense in antiques is probably better than even the dealers,” said Chak in an interview as Zhao shopped.

At first glance, there seems little about this northern province of 34 million people that hints at its wealth. Unlike coastal Shanghai or Guangdong, whose trade with the outside world created a class of traders and entrepreneurs, Shanxi is landlocked. In 2006, the per-capita income of its urban residents was 10,794 yuan, below the national average.

Still, Shanxi produces about 80 percent of China’s coal, the nation’s main source of fuel; it accounts for the biggest share of the province’s economy. As prices more than quintupled between 2002 and 2008, a class of new rich, dubbed “Coal Bosses” emerged in Shanxi.

Shanxi’s new rich have a reputation in China for brashness and ostentatious spending. In Taiyuan, taxi drivers recount stories of coal barons buying entire apartment blocks or Louis Vuitton bags by the dozens.

Buying Hummers

A coal baron of Xiaoyi City once bought 15 Hummers in one go, says state-run Jingji Cankao Bao. They also travel in groups to Beijing and Shanghai to buy property, state media say.

Even though coal’s value has nearly halved since its peak in August as growth slowed, many Shanxi tycoons are still putting their money in antiques, where the rarest items are fetching record prices as property prices tanked, said dealer Lu.

In May, property prices in 70 Chinese cities had their sixth straight month of decline, according to the Statistical Bureau.

At Christie’s Hong Kong sale last month, a pair of Qing Dynasty imperial gilt-bronze bells fetched HK$45.5 million, the priciest at auction.

“Antiques make better investments than most,” said Nie Zhihui, a collector who says he made his fortune selling coal to steel companies in the region. Nie, 40, wearing a buzz cut and black T-shirt, declined to say how much he’s worth.

Filmy Air

In Taiyuan, nylon flags advertising the fair flapped in the filmy air, which reduced visibility to about 300 meters. In alleys, vendors touted pyramid stacks of watermelons by the road; street-side stores flashed neon signs advertising noodles and medicine. In some empty lots, the rubble of demolished structures is covered by blue-and-red tarp sheets.

The widest road in Taiyuan, a city of 3.4 million people, is a thoroughfare, six lanes each way, built soon after the 1949 Communist Party came to power in China, called Yingze Jie, which means Road to Welcome Mao Zedong. Mao never came to Taiyuan.

At the antiques fair, some haggled in the open as dozens gathered to watch the commotion, while others negotiated behind partitions; when it came time to pay, one buyer reached into his bowling bag and pulled out bundles of red 100-yuan notes, the biggest denomination of the Chinese currency, another said he would wire-transfer the money. After paying, some just tucked the purchases in their bags and left.

The organizer, Chak’s Co., didn’t answer requests seeking attendance and sales figures.

Buddha Beads

Most of the booths reported strong sales. Hui Zengjiu, a Beijing-based dealer specializing in antique Buddha beads and enamels, said he had recouped the 50,000 yuan he paid for his 3 meter-by-3 meter booth. The booth of Priestley & Ferraro, with a store on London’s King Street, was seen selling some ceramics.

“A lot of China’s finest treasures are in the hands of Shanxi collectors,” said Ching.

None has found its way in the form of loans or donations to the Shanxi Museum, about 3 kilometers southwest of the World Trade Hotel, where the antiques fair is held.

Chen Fenxia, a Shanxi Museum spokeswoman, said she’s heard of art buying by the province’s tycoons.

Asked if Shanxi Museum, which gets its annual funding of 10 million yuan from the government, would accept loans or donations by tycoons, she said, “I imagine they bought the antiques only as investments.”

At the fair, Zhao turned and told an accompanying friend, Feng Buwu, “Find something you like and buy it. Be quick.”

Antiques dealers must be thinking the same.

To contact the writer on the story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net

June 25, 2009

Original article here:

China Coal City’s Tycoons Splurge on Antiques as Dealers Swoop (Bloomberg)

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.

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