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 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.”

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A 2000 year old, Han dynasty earthenware jar with swirling cloud patterns

A set of Han earthenware painted jugs

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, which we recently found surely deserves a mention. Now, normally our blog is encompassing of all topics pertaining to antiques, but in this case, these Han dynasty burial items are best described in terms of antiquities and archeology. And though by no means, am I an archeologist,  I must say I understand that there just something really cool about holding an object in your hands made over 2000 years ago (Or for that matter, owning something that can found in museums or at Christies Auction house).

First, a quick lesson in history. Lasting almost 400 years, the Han dynasty (Han Dynasty, 206 B.C- 220 A.D) consisted of two main periods referred to as “Western Han” (Chang’ an) and  “Eastern Han” (Luo yang) which is why you will see Han burial items often referred to in this manner ( Its worthy to note that there does indeed  exist a third and very short in between dynasty named “xin” or “Wang Man”). To put that much time into perspective, lets just say, this was during the same period as the Roman Empire, the silk road and the birth and death of Christ.

Coccon shaped Han dynasty "hu" jar similar to the one in the Kimbell Art Museam

A closer look at the mouth of the above Han dynasty jug

Items from this period, were typically un-glazed black, gray or painted earthenware as glazing did not exist yet in early Han and/or was in its earliest  experimental phases.

Han earthenware "ding" vessels

Large Han dynasty wine "hu" jug

If you want to learn a bit more about Ming Qi there are a few good sources of information I can recommend:

• The Vibrant Role of Mingqi in Early Chinese Burial (This is a short but very good introduction from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)
• The forums (here and here) on the Asian Art website have some lively discussions and though mostly centered on jade and porcelain authentication there are discussions on pottery and earthenware as well.
• Ancient China From the Neolithic Period to the Han Dynasty: This is a PDF file which I have included here, from the Asian Art Museum Education Department and includes quite a lot of info not only on Han but also other dynasties and covers bronze and jade as well. The additional Powerpoint slides are here (includes the color images).
• The Mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China: This book is available here on Amazon.
• A Guide to the Tomb and Shrine Art of the Han Dynasty:  This book is also available here on Amazon.

a closer look at the rich painted colors

Examples in Museums:

A few amazing examples from Museums around the world…

	Kimbell Art Museam: Chinese Cocoon-Shaped Jar with Cloud-Scroll Design Late 2nd or early 1st century B.C. China, possibly Luoyang, Henan province, Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9) Earthenware with painted polychrome decoration 11-1/2 x 13-1/8 x 9-1/4 in. (29.2 x 33.3 x 23.5 cm)
	The National Palace Museum, Taipei Pottery cocoon-shaped Hu vessel Creation Date: Warring States Period to Western Han Dynasty Start Year Date: B.C.481 End Year Date: A.D.9
	Krannert Art Museum – University of Illinois Hu vessel (2nd century CE) Chinese, Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) Ceramic: earthenware with red, black and white slip diam: 8″ x 5 1/2″

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This from the China Daily / China.org recently:

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.

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Here is a nice article I came across on Chinese Symbols on antique-marks.com which is worth posting here. Thanks to them for compiling such a comprehensive list. The original can be found here under “Glossary of Chinese Symbols.”

Glossary of Chinese Symbols – and images found on antique Chinese furniture and other artifacts.

The Chinese Symbols list is not exhaustive but we will add to it as time goes by. The descriptions detailed are only intended to be relevant to how the word or term relates to decoration on Chinese furniture and other Chinese antiques.

Chinese Symbols Gods … The Stellar Triad

Fu is pictured as a retired scholar or official holding flowers or carrying a basket of flowers, frequently carrying a ruyi (wish granting wand) or a baby boy. He symbolizes good fortune.

Lu is emblematic of rank and the wealth achieved through rank, is richly dressed, wears an official’s green robe and cap with flaps. Lu sometimes holds a ceremonial tablet; deer (symbolic of emolument) are often pictured on his robes. He symbolizes continuing wealth enhancement in sharp contrast with Caishen –while a wealth god as well, Caishen favors wealth through lucky chances.

Shou represents longevity. He is pictured with a long white beard and mustache elongated earlobes, and a large protruding forehead with 3 wrinkles and a bald head. Shou carries the peach of immortality. Shou is often shown by a young boy (posterity). Shou frequently carries a staff and holds a bottle gourd which holds the beverage of immortality.

Xi is the God of joy and is sometimes pictured with the Stellar Triad.

Baxian (The Eight Immortals) when shown together represent longevity and the breadth of all Chinese people, rich or poor, old and young, scholars, soldiers, the sick and the well. They have a great variety of powers.

Chinese Symbols Gods … The Eight Immortals

Zhong Liquan (also known as Han Zhongli) is pictured as a man with a bare belly, coiled hair on both sides of his head, and a very long beard. His symbols are a fan of feathers or a peach of immortality. Capacities include raising the dead, hiding the sun and the moon.

Li Tieguai is pictured as a crippled beggar with protruding eyes, clutching a crutch. His symbols are a gourd containing magic herbs or an elixir made from the peaches of immortality from which a bat is escaping. Capabilities include sympathy with those who are deformed or crippled as well as those suffering chronic pain..

Lan Caihe is sexually undetermined. Sometimes a little boy, sometimes she is female or hermaphrodite. Her symbols are a basket of fruit or flowers. Her capacities are to make fun of the little annoyances and stupidities of the world.

Hexiangu is the only woman of the eight. Her symbols are a lotus stem, a long kitchen ladle, or a ruyi. Her capacities are to resolve domestic disputes, and generally help in household management.

Cao Guojiu is an aristocrat in elegant court clothes. His symbols are a fly whisk or a pair of clappers or castanets. His capacities include blessing performance.

Lu Dongbin is a man with a two-edged sword hanging from his back and a horse hair switch in his hand. His capacities include eliminating greed, lust and sorrow from people’s lives.

Zhang Guolao is a very old, celibate recluse. His symbol is a musical instrument consisting of a bamboo tube struck by two rods. His capacities include raising the dead.

Han Xiangzi is a good looking, vigorous youth. His symbol is a jade flute. His capacities include blessing fortune tellers and encouraging flowers to grow.

Caishen is a wealth God with a winged cap. He is usually pictured carrying a ruyi (wish granting wand). Caishen generates wealth through windfalls, gambling etc. He is more the God of wealth through luck and Lu is the God of wealth through official position.

Menshen is a gate god, a mythical war like ferocious creature whose images frequently were posted on external doors to repel evil spirits.

Zaojun is the stove god in charge of the household.

Chinese Animal symbols and their meanings …

A Bat is a Chinese symbol of Fu or good luck. Frequently five bats are used together to represent the five elements of Fu–longevity, wealth, health, living a virtuous life, and natural death in old age. The bat may be so stylized that it is mistaken for a butterfly.

Qilin is a mythical creature said to produce sons for childless couples. Frequently the qilin is being ridden by young boy carrying a lotus and a reed pipe.

A Fu Dog is a mythical creature who provided protection to house and family. A fu dog has the body of a dog and the head of lion.

A Rabbit is associated with longevity, and is usually pictured on its hind legs under the cassia tree mixing the elixir of immortality on the moon

A Monkey is a symbol of the immortality of the human spirit despite hardships and frailties. He is also the one who ‘gets away with everything.’

A Turtle (or tortoise) is also a sign of immortality, one who supports the whole earth. The outer shell represents the heaven, its flat belly a flat earth.

A Phoenix is beauty and a yin quality. A pair of phoenix means happiness and is associated with buried treasure. When pictured with a dragon, the two together represent the union of man and a woman.

The Dragon in Chinese Symbols is power, royalty and a yang symbol.

When pictured with a phoenix they represent the union of a man and woman. By itself, the dragon also represents protection.

An Elephant is wisdom and change.

A Carp epitomize the struggle to pass examinations and achieves affluence as a result. A single carp symbolizes patience and steadfastness.

Fish Scales equate with success.

A Gold Fish represent riches. When shown with a lotus, they means lavish riches- e.g. gold and jade together.

Pair of Fish denotes marital bliss.

Flying Geese also means marital bliss.

Magpies also signifies marital bliss.

Mandarin Ducks are another symbol of marital bliss.

Cranes represent longevity, wisdom, and the father-son relationship.

Deer Chinese symbols symbolize longevity or official wealth.

A Lion is a sign of power and protection.

A Butterfly represent longevity.

Cats also represent longevity.

A Horse is equated with success.

A Horse with a Monkey on its Back is a sign of official success.

Chinese Symbols representing Fruit, Flower and Vegetables and their meanings.

Bamboo is longevity.

A Pine is also longevity.

A Cypress is another symbol for longevity.

A Mushroom (or fungus) is yet another representation of longevity.

Peaches in its various forms of peach wood, peach branches, peach blossoms, peach tree all represent longevity.

A Plum Blossom is a symbol of longevity or winter.

A Chrysanthemum is a sign of longevity or endurance.

A Willow shows spring or gentleness.

A Pomegranate is a symbol of fertility.

A Peony represents success and wealth.

A Lotus stands for uprightness, endurance, or progeny.

Flowers show wealth.

A Single Peach is used for beauty or joy.

An Osmanthus Blossom is for something precious.

Other Chinese Symbols and meanings …

Wan is a symbol of immortality or very long life.

A Vase represents peace. The vase is often pictured with the elephants suggesting “wisdom and peace.”

Water Ripples are a symbol of wealth.

Clouds show wisdom and heavenly blessing.

Gold Pieces stand for wealth.

Coins represent wealth. Conjoined coins suggest double happiness.

A Gourd-Shaped Bottle is a sign of the capture of spirits.

A Fan stands for goodness.

A Flute demonstrates disappearing.

A Goose is a symbol of marital bliss.

A Hill is a symbol of backing.

Jade is a sign of purity.

A Square shows the earth or stability.

Taiji is a sign of the perfect balance of yin and yang.

A Triangle is a sign of instability.

Water is a sign of wealth or source of breath.

A Ruyi is a magic wand used to deliver what ever one wishes.

Eight Trigrams (ba gua) are a charm disliked by evil spirits.

Rocks are a symbol of longevity.

Red means happiness.

Green is for riches.

Blue is for things that are heavenly.

Yellow denotes royalty.

Black is a sign of solemnity.

Arrows, Swords, Axes, Mirrors and Scissors are all symbols to wand off evil, and are frequently found on external-facing doors.

A Scroll is a symbol of knowledge.

A Book is also a sign of knowledge.

A Paint Brush is yet another symbol of knowledge.

A Lantern is used to show happiness.

A Knotted Cord is a sign of longevity.

Fu is a important concept of good fortune composed of five elements:

• Health
• Wealth
• Longevity
• Love of virtue
• Natural death at an old age

Double Happiness is the symbol for both Fu (wealth) and Shou (longevity) used together.

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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.

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Here’s a somewhat arcane post, yet one that’s incredibly useful for anyone who is either an interior designer, furniture designer or even just someone redecorating their home with one of the many 3d programs like Google sketchup. Which brings me to the topic of this post: where to find 3d models of Chinese furniture

So, here are a few suggested sites:

Free sites:

http://www.3dmodelfree.com/3dmodel/list425-1.htm

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Paid Sites:

http://www.the123d.com/furniture_collections/asian_furniture_kit.html

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/330344

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=0&search=Chinese+furniture

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Here’s a somewhat arcane post, yet one that’s incredibly useful for anyone who is either an interior designer, furniture designer or even just someone redecorating their home with one of the many 3d programs like Google sketchup. Which brings me to the topic of this post: where to find 3d models of Chinese furniture

So, here are a few suggested sites:

Free sites:

http://www.3dmodelfree.com/3dmodel/list425-1.htm

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Paid Sites:

http://www.the123d.com/furniture_collections/asian_furniture_kit.html

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/330344

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=0&search=Chinese+furniture

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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 another, a terra-cotta Han dynasty vase is emblazoned with the logo of Coca Cola. An excellent quote by Geoff Manaugh sums up Ai Wei Wei’s work just nicely!

“For “Grapes”, 2008, Ai partially merged ten stools; they force their way into the others structure, like mutant siblings slowly fusing in the womb. Here, several centuries’ worth of artisan furniture production have been hybridized to form something altogether new. In Ai’s Table with Two Legs on the Wall, 1997, a single table has been folded in half to rear up like a horse and rest its legs against the wall. It is cousins with the centaur: a mythic being trapped between two forms, two competing versions of itself. Another table – “Table with Three Legs”, 2008 – has been turned into a spidery mechanism, a low-tech machine of wood, its legs akimbo and stance slightly askew. Carefully poised, it seems so unsure of itself – yet strangely at ease with its unusual new form. Can furniture get drunk?, one might ask. “Table with Three Legs” offers an answer in its very geometry.”

For more on Ai Wei Wei see: http://phillipsartexpert.com/forums/7/597/ or http://www.phillipsdepury.com/exhibitions.aspx?sn=EXUK1009

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