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

September 18, 2007 5:17 pm

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Blurring the line further… How to tell if its a genuine antique?

If you read my previous post “blurring the line” you know how difficult it is to honestly decide whether or not an item should be considered an “genuine Chinese antique.” Answering this question becomes even more difficult when you consider the awkward journey a piece my take as it travels through the “antique-reproduction” supply chain. Consider this attractive low table, we purchase and restored for a customer in Italy. The first picture (upper left) is what it looked like when we purchased it BEFORE restoration. The last two on the bottom are the final result AFTER restoration.

The cabinet itself is a antique. It was collected from a peasant on a farm by a “materials collector” who then sold it to what we would consider to be a wholesale antiques flea market far off in Shanxi province, to the west of Beijing. From there is was bought (in bulk along with many, many other pieces) by a local furniture factory who re-laquered the front and completely retouched (actually repainted) the beautiful gold painting you see on the front of the piece. Or what DID the front look like in the first place? Maybe there never was any red lacquer and the peice was just a common wood color. So while the delicate gold “miao jin” paintings and trim look old, they are in fact completely new. Why is this?

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