Antique for a song

The other day while in a shop selling second-hand things, a small flat bowl caught my attention. It looked pretty refine and well made. This bowl was used as a device for scholars to wash their brushes while doing their calligraphy work.

I looked at the base of the bowl, there were some Chinese characters, not those that showed made during the reign of some emperors (liked made in Qian Long Era, etc). Instead, the characters showed it was made by a shop (Zing Wei Tang).

When I looked at the price tag, it was only $6.80. I could not believe that such an elegant bowl was sold for only $6.80. Looking at the glaze, I knew it was an old bowl, definitely more than 100 years old. A fake one would not be so fine in quality and its glaze would look pretty new. Immediately I went to the cashier and paid for the bowl.

A flat bowl for washing brushes

When I showed it to a friend, he agreed with me that this was an old porcelain bowl, easily more than a hundred years old. We were puzzled as to why this bowl was in a second-hand shop selling for such a low price.

Later when I browsed through a book on Qing dynasty porcelains, I found out that there were some porcelain wares bearing the marks of some famous shops at the base of the ware. There were many of such shops and their marks were used from Kang Xi period to Qian Long period. Then I discovered that the shop named Zing Wei Tang was actually used during the Yong Zhen and Qian Long period. This means that the bowl could be dated back to the Yong Zhen and Qian Long era,  a distant 400 years ago. In fact, I got myself an antique for an extremely low price.

There are still valuable things out there selling at very low price. The question is whether you are able to spot them at the right time, right place and for the right price.

Crazy teapots

Gu Jingzhow, a world renown potter, was the greatest contemporary potter in the 20th century. His teapots were so sought after that there are no shortage of bidders if they are put in the auction markets. Every time, a new record is created in the auction market and people are paying hefty prices just to own one of his works.

In 2015, his teapot set (10 piece) was sold for a record 92 millions in RMB.

He took one year to make this set

In 2011, the record was over 17 millions for a set of 11 piece.

This teapot was sold for over 10 millions in the early 20s.

This teapot was made in the 50s

Wang YinXien

Recently bloused through Baidu's site on the latest news related to Yixing teapots and potters and found this posting. A famous teapot grands-master, Wang Yinxien passed away in March this year due to illness, aged 75. Just recently, I was watching a video clip in the U-tube on her life and the teapots she made over the years. She came from a humble beginning and rose above the rank to become a national grand-master in teapot.

Wang was no ordinary potter in Yixing. She was awarded the national Grand-master title in 2007. Her works have been collection items in many museums both locally and around the world.

Wang and her most famous teapot, Curved Pot

Wang was famous with this Curved Pot, a design created by Prof Zhang and made by Wang. I had a chance to meet her in the 90s when she came to Singapore to exhibit this teapot. There were two Taiwanese who followed her all the way to Singapore just to bid for this one. Eventually one of them bought it for US$20k. The organizer of the event, a close friend of mine, told me that he had to engage an Indian Money Exchanger to authenticate all the big notes as Banks refused to do so. It was a lot of money then. Of course, today the teapot can fetch millions in auction markets.

Brochure of the event held in Singapore

Wang's other famous works include:

My friends visited her in the 90s and she gave me an autographed publication on her teapots.

She was such a talented and gifted potter. Her passing is a loss in the world of Yixing ware. We will miss her.