The specialists guide to Chinese antiques.

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:
GE: Antique [...]

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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This enormous solid wood console (over two meters) which probably dates back to the Ming Dynasty, originally made its home in a temple in Shanxi province before being stumbled upon by us in the far off, dusty dirty corners of the antiques trade.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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 I came across this in 2005 and have not seen anything like it again ever since.  At best, the painting has been retouched and at worst, the finish was completely new. The cabinet itself looks old though. Regardless, it would have made a great conversation piece in my living room…. While india has had the [...]

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A while back, I took a friend of mine out to check out some unrestored antiques. A week or so later he went back to the same peasant vendor and picked up this amazing antique chinese ancestor painting. Its a little hard to see from the photos (apologies – they were snapped with my Palm Pilot) but there [...]

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