The specialists guide to Chinese antiques.

Somehow I missed this one (which dates all the way back to 2007).  While I have to admit its a bit cynical to say it, I find this absolutely hilarious (on so many levels, I can’t even begin to touch on all of them).  From rampant piracy in China, to its historical context concerning fakes [...]

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One of ACF’s local “inside suppliers”  wishes to liquidate his existing stock of restored antique walnut furniture from Gansu at reduced prices, as he is now dealing only in un-restored antiques. As an “inside supplier” this restorer does not normally sell directly to overseas customers and instead local furniture factories buy [...]

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Interesting recent find… The question is “what is it?” Are these oracle bones ( 甲骨 jiǎgǔ) ? And if so, why is  it not cracked? Or was this particular one simply used for practicing carving inscriptions? Or maybe even record keeping? Is this pictographs indeed an example of jiăgŭwén (oracle script) or is it seal [...]

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Item: A pair of late 18th to early 19th century Qing period Chinese compound cabinets
Region: Shanxi Province in Northern China
Materials: Nanmu (楠木 – Phoebe) and Chicken Wing wood  (鸡翅木) *
Price: 60,000 to 80,000 Chinese RMB (SOLD) **

Condition: Purchased un-restored. Minimal restoration. New hardware. Carvings likely replaced after being defaced during the cultural revolution.

Related Books:
Superb portraits, [...]

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Pretty neat. If anyone can pick up a copy for me it would be much appreciated as I have yet to see in print.
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 [...]

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Note: All images are clickable.
During our treks and travels, we come across all sorts of rare, unusual and interesting things. Like this 300 year old temple table we stumbled across this past summer. Or this Chinese ancestor painting which eventually wound up permanently wall-mounted in a friends living room. But this cache of Han Dynasty earthenware, [...]

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This wouldn’t a proper blog on Chinese furniture and culture without a least a mention of the Chinese contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei, who reinterprets traditional and classical furniture designs in unexpected ways. In one instance, “officials hat chairs” are carved  from solid blocks of white marble (and with no joinery I might add). In [...]

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This enormous solid wood console (over two meters) which probably dates back to the Ming Dynasty, originally made its home in a temple in Shanxi province before being stumbled upon by us in the far off, dusty dirty corners of the antiques trade. Known in Chinese as a “Gong An,” or roughly a”temple table” the [...]

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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 [...]

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Here is one that seemed to miss me, despite having even been picked up by wired magazine. Ever get nervous watching people handle priceless porcelain or works of art? Worried they might drop it? Well how about this one (Anyone have the video of this?).

TV show assistant smashes 2,500-year-old bronze mirror
2007-01-17 03:30:10 Xinhua English
BEIJING, Jan. [...]

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I stumbled upon this rather amusing post on designaddict.com which talks about Maarten Baas’s, recent Jully 2008 exhibition at Contrasts gallery in Shanghai.
While participating in Contrasts’ residency program, which brings Western artists to China to study local artistic and cultural practices, Baas became fascinated with traditional Chinese woodcarving; this exhibition is dominated by the results [...]

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A while back, ACF’s Roger Schwendeman was featured on CCTV (China Central Television) Channel 4’s program Culture Express. CCTV 4 is broadcast throughout China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and worldwide via satellite.
CCTV’s team accompanied Roger for several days during buying trips of un-restored Chinese antiques, and then onward to oversee the next steps [...]

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A while back I know the SIMS game was amazingly popular. This is the game where you control the lives of virtual characters from making conversation to making love. People take virtual vacations, get married – you name it! Heard it was extraordinarily addictive, so I skipped over it (Actually was already addicted [...]

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A while back, I had a posting about a Antique Chinese red wardrobe with gold erotica paintings on the front.   Which got be thinking, so I did a bit of poking around on Google and dug up some interesting links on the subject of Chinese erotic art and culture.
Portrait of a Chinese Paradise
Apparently John Byron is [...]

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There is a great show on on BTV (Beijing TV) called “Collection” which I happened to stumble upon late one evening while flipping though the Chinese channels. Normally I avoid the Chinese channels like the plague since about 90% of the time they are eiter a) boring b) lame c) boring and d) lame and [...]

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