Bamboo-root carvings

Do you know that bamboo-roots, most people would regard them as waste products, can be turned into beautiful art pieces that can be well sought after by collectors?

 

I have one such bamboo-root carving which I bought when I was on a tour in Szechuan in an area known as the Bamboo Sea. There were so much bamboo trees planted everywhere, from the cable car the view did look like a sea of bamboo trees, hence the name Bamboo Sea. The carving I bought was a portrait of an old man laughing unceasingly with the roots as his long beards and thick eye brow. It has been hanging on the wall of my kitchen for many years.

Bamboo-root carving of an old man

In China, bamboo-root carving was not a new art form. In fact it was very popular during the Qing dynasty where some antique pieces can still be found in museums or in private collectors' hands.

To begin, one has to harvest the bamboo-root from the field. He needs to study the form of the bamboo-roots to decide his subject matter.

 

 

However, the art of bamboo-root carving declined after the collapse of the last dynasty with fewer and fewer people working on this material. At one time there was hardly anyone around who knew the art and technique of bamboo-root carving. When people have harvested the bamboo trees for making useful house-hold products, they would just throw away the roots or burn them as a source of heat.

It was a man's passion for wood carving that revived this ancient art form. As wood was rather an expensive material for carving, he turned to bamboo-roots as the material for his carving needs. As the bamboo roots were considered as waste products, he would get them free or for a very low price. He experimented for quite some time until he perfected the skills required to carve these bamboo-roots.

Initially he faced an uphill task to revive this art form as people still would not accept bamboo-roots carving as objects of art. He had a hard time selling his carvings as no one would invest such art pieces made from wastes. He found life to be very tough as he had not enough money even to buy the simplest meals, a bowl of plain noodles.

But soon things change for the better when he exhibited his works at a trade fare and a westerner admired his works. He then received a contract of 50000 RMB to produce hundreds of these carvings for export. With that order, he started a factory and hired people to assist him to carry out the business. Then business began to improve and he became quite famous in the region as a craftsman in bamboo-root carving.

He later realized that in order to succeed as a professional, he needed to inject some cultural aspects into these art so that his creations could be considered as master-pieces. He began to research in the history of ancient China and other aspects of culture and ancient legends and historical figures. Soon he was able to inject culture and history into his works. He also made use of the roots in the bamboo to reflect the beauty of the subjects he had crafted. His works began to appeal more to collectors who are looking for some artistic aspects in the carvings. The carving below shows a general who was active during the Three Kingdoms Era. His name was Chang Fei and the roots of the bamboo spreading outwards and his two round eyes really depicted the man in the novel.

 

 He was able to use the roots of the bamboo to match his subjects and the end result was really a masterpiece of art. No wonder he was later awarded the title national grand master of art.

 

 If you ever go to Szechuan for holidays, you will see a lot of these bamboo-root carvings on sale in villages and market places. They are not expensive. I got mine for only 10 RMB a few years ago.

China Silver Coins 2

In the early 1980s, there were a series of 1 oz pure silver coins minted every year based on the Chinese calendar year featuring the twelve animals from the mouse to the pig. These coins were minted in a small quantity of 6800 pieces. There all came with certificates of authenticity bearing the serial number of issue. The coins were packaged in hard plastic containers and were not meant for circulation. All these coins were minted for the export market as China desperately needed foreign funds to help develop the nation. Hence you don't see a lot of these coins in the local market and not many people talked about them in cyber space. I recently spotted one (a twin dragons silver coin)on offer in the internet for over 600 pounds.

I was able to collect some of these coins through a local agent (Bank of China) who imported these coins for sale in other countries. These coins were sold at 80 dollars per piece initially and went up to more than a hundred dollars later on. At that time the price of silver was very low, hence selling the coins at 100 dollars per piece really reaped a huge profit for the nation. I like these coins as they were all excellently minted and the design of each animal in the China calendar was cleverly thought of. Nowadays, you don't see a lot of these coins in the overseas markets as the China market is very bigger for their own people.

After the success of these lunar new year coins, there come the panda silver coins minted in the 1980s. These lovely coins were so well received by the world that many countries began coping the Chinese by minting their own lunar new year coins as well as the panda coins.

The first Brilliant Uncirculated 1 oz. pure silver Panda legal tender coin was issued in 1989. All coin collectors around the world have been crazy over them because the design of the adorable panda changes every year. And the cost for these coins is surprisingly modest. Every coin is in pristine Brilliant Uncirculated quality, looking just as it did the day it was minted.

 

 

 

 

The biggest panda coin is the 1 kg pure silver one which is not that easy to handle due to its weight. When these 1 kg-coins first appeared in the market, they were selling for around a thousand dollars each but now they are worth more than ten thousands per piece.

China silver dollars

In ancient China, gold and silver had been symbols of wealth. All transactions were carried out with payment in gold or silver. Even when china lost a war with another nation, compensation was made in terms of how many silver ingots. Other than gold or silver, copper had also been used widely among common folks in the market places where most items were traded in copper coins. The copper coins are interesting as they all have a square hole in the middle and they were minted during the reign of a particular emperor. Dou know why such a design? The Chinese always believed that the sky (or heaven) was round and the earth was square (flat). Hence many things in ancient China were designed according to this concept. As for the copper coins, people liked to put the coins through a string and wrapped the strings of coins around their waist. Hence the saying waist carrying thousands of coins was used to described wealthy people.



Old China copper coins

Traditional silver ingots

Foreign silver dollar

 

From the 16th century through the first part of the 20th century, a variety of silver coins appeared in China through trades with foreigners — Spanish and Mexican pieces were common examples of silver coins circulated during that time. The Ming and Qing governments (before the late 9th century) did not mint silver coins. The coins minted during the late Qing dynasty carried the name of the reign in which they were produced. These coins carried the design of a dragon and hence they are commonly referred to as the dragon coins. Before minting their own version of silver coins, the use of silver ingots for foreign trade was a disadvantage to the Chinese as the silver ingots contained almost pure silver while the foreign silver coins only carried 90% silver.

A Qing dynasty dragon silver dollar

 

Collecting China silver coins (or  silver dollars) is both a fascinating and daunting task as there are so many counterfeit coins hiddened in a smaller pool of genuine coins. One must beware of counterfeit coins. Counterfeiting is rampant today, especially with Chinese coins. Never buy or sell a Chinese coin unless you trust the other party implicitly. Even for genuine cons, the task of collecting good and valuable ones is not a simple one.  Beside a large variety of coins, there are also subtle differences between them, and those subtle differences can change value quite a bit. If you have a nice-looking coin like this, it is a good idea to seek out a knowledgeable collector or coin dealer for an in-person appraisal.

Currency reform was a constant issue from the late Qing through the Republican period. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the President of the Republic, Yuan Shikai, minted the official silver dollars featuring his own portrait for circulation. This coin was produced to replace foreign and Provincial dragon dollars in circulation.The coins were struck at many mints with uniform dies provided by the Tientsin mint. The Republic of China National Currency Regulations issued in 1914 had envisioned a uniform standard, with one Yuan Shikai silver dollar equal to, for example five 20 cents silver coins or 100 copper cent.These silver coins of of Yuan Shikai gained some traction between 1915 and 1925, the political fragmentation of China further complicated the monetary system, with various warlords and provincial officials making their own money.

The silver dollars minted by Yan Shikai, more commonly called the Yuan big Head, are a favourite among collectors as the coins were very well minted with the president's portrait and some bunches of leaves ( or grains stalks). Each coin has a weight of 26.4 g and contains 90 % silver. The genuine coin produces a really nice chime when hit against another genuine one (a traditional method to filter out the genuine ones from the fakes). As there so many fakes around, it is important to be extra cautious when buying these coins. Some contained only 40% silver (not minted officially) while others are generally alloys of copper with silver plating on the outside. The fakes are slight lighter and they are made slightly bigger to fool the collectors. There are four versions of the cons, bearing the year of he Republic, for instance, the 3rd, 8th, 9th and 10th year of the Republic. Other than these versions, they are all fakes. When buying coins, always remember a saying: good things don't come cheap.

 

A rare coin of President Yuan in full military uniform was selling for more than 34 thousand pounds while another rare coin was recently auctioned for over 4 million RMB in China. One can see the excitement and joy derived from collecting ancient china silver dollars.

This coin was recently auctioned for over 4 million RMB

 

These rare coins of Yuan Shikai in military uniform

Another silver dollar depicting president Sun

Portrait of Yuan Shikai