Finding Treasures in a City’s Disappearing Past

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:23:57 +0000

Li Songtang at his museum in Beijing, where he displays relics saved from demolition sites in the rapidly modernizing city. Doug Kanter for The New York Times function getSharePasskey() { return \\\'ex=1390280400&en=184347f2e9c75dff&ei=5124\\\';} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent(\\\'http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/world/asia/19beijing.html\\\'); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent(\\\'Finding Treasures in a City’s Disappearing Past\\\'); } function getShareDescription() { [...]

Chronology of Chinese dynasties & History

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:22:56 +0000

Below is very short but useful post reprinted from Wikipedia time-lining the various Chinese Dynasties (Click on H for the history of the dynasty, and E for a table of its emperors (or other rulers). The content you see here has been reprinted from: The specialist guide to Antique Chinese Furniture located at antique-chinese-furniture.com This content [...]

Hunting for treasures in Beijing’s Antique furniture markets

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:21:46 +0000

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 [...]

Beijing Field trip: Outdoor Wholesale Chinese Antique Market Tour

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:26:09 +0000

ACF China and the The Hutong will be co-organizing a field trip this Saturday morning to visit a outdoor wholesale market where peasants from the countryside bring antique furniture to sell to wholesalers, specialists and restorers. This is an extremely rare opportunity to see where antique furniture comes from and what it looks like in [...]

Antiques Shopping on Hollywood Road in Hong Kong

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:01:47 +0000

Over the years, having spent a fair amount of time in and out of Hong Kong, it suddenly dawned on me that (up until now), this famous Hong Kong antiques street in Central, has yet to be mentioned here. Adding insult to injury, is that fact that for many years, upon my arrival in Hong [...]

Insiders Guide to Chinese Antiques: A new workshop at the Beijing Hutong School

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:20:14 +0000

When people hear the word “antiques,” they often relate it to something their grandmother might enjoy - in other words old-world - musty - boring! Which is why we will be starting a new course on Chinese antiques at The Beijing Hutong School. We want to be able to share some of the rich textures, [...]

Restoring a Chinese mahjong table with a bit of pyrotechnics!

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:45:33 +0000

I get so backed up with blog posts, because there is so many interesting and fascinating things to see and talk about. And being detailed oriented, I really want to spend the time to talk about each item in detail, the history behind it, where it comes from and all the other details that make [...]

Working with a freight forwarder specializing in furniture packing and shipping

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:09:30 +0000

If you are in an antiques, furniture, or any other import related business, then the packing and shipping of your goods will be a crucial logistical detail which should not easily be overlooked. Since many buyers are unable to maintain a permanent office in China, and surely not individual buyers purchasing for their homes, they [...]

Chinese reverse glass paintings

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:45:10 +0000

The Antiques Roadshow on PBS, has some great Chinese antique-relevant episodes, particularly this one on Chinese reverse glass paintings. Even cooler is the fact you can watch these episodes online!  The Chinese reverse painted glass mirror pictured above was recently sitting in our shop before it was purchased by someone who is now enjoying it [...]

thermoluminescence testing for porcelain, ceramics and bronzes

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:14:40 +0000

Another super quick post but a link worth including here: http://www.oxfordauthentication.com/ One thing to be aware of is that thermoluminescence testing works only with fired items, in other words items like porcelain, earthenware or bronze. If you don’t know what thermoluminescence testing is have a quick read of the snippet below from their website: Thermoluminescence A [...]