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

The Brutal Truth about Buying Chinese Antiques on eBay
This is a great little guide from an ebay seller who goes by the screen name of  loveshackbaybee. Its fairly comprehensive and worth a reprint here. Well written, very candid and overall good advice for the masses looking to pick up that “authentic Qing Dynasty vase at [...]

[Read more →]

(Click images to enlarge)
 Question:
A reputable local beijing based antique Chinese furniture dealer sold us this nice Chinese table. It cracked a few months after getting it.  He has his own shop to produce furniture as well as sell antiques. I am sending you 3 photos, 1 of each side of the table, and 1 [...]

[Read more →]

Photos of these two cabinets have been floating around on our file server for quite a while and I have been meaning to put them up here as another excellent example of differences in quality between Chinese antique workshops and restoration as well as in Chinese Country Antique Furniture in general. These are [...]

[Read more →]

A few interesting examples and baselines which can be used when making an assessment of quality. You will need to click each photo to see the enlarged verion and associated comments.
Poor to low quality
This piece speaks for itself. Particularly evident is fitting which uses the lowest quality of materials.

[Read more →]

 Chinese workers love to use the phrase ¨cha bu duo¨ (pronounced “Cha Boo Daul) which directly translates to ¨not very far off  (meaning approximately or roughly)¨ Unfortunately, in almost all case it usually works out to be not even close,  in otherwords,  ”cha tai duo”  (meaning way too far off).   Workers see no need for exact [...]

[Read more →]

A simple comparison

Comparison price shopping is common, in order to locate the best deal. A particular television model may be priced at $200 dollars at one store but found on elsewhere on sale for $180 (a full $20 less) by the savvy shopper. Sure, pre and post sales service may differ slightly per retailer, [...]

[Read more →]

Having just returned from the Shanghai furniture show, here are my impressions of the Ningbo/Shanghai factories: 
Woods  – (minus)
The southern woods are definitely a poor substitute for the better ones from the North. One easy way to clearly feel the difference is to pick up one of those tall swoop-topped wooden stools that everyone sells. The [...]

[Read more →]

Here is another great example of “chabuduo.” Apparently the worker who put in the shelf though that chaobuduo really wouldn’t that big of a deal…

[Read more →]