Friday, October 23, 2015

Chinese Tea Collectors

A visitor from Petaling Jaya, Selangor searching for “any chinese tea collectors in kuala lumpur”. Yes, there are collectors. There are collectors for many things like Porcelain, jade, rocks, jewellery, furniture, paintings, watches pens, snuff bottles cigarette boxes, match boxes, cigarettes lighters (petrol and gas), coins, stamps, old notes, bicycles, motorcycles, classic cars, vintage cars, toys, glass wares, brass wares, clocks, netsuke, locks, liquor and many other things. One friend of mine showed me a photo clip of a wrapped up Chinese tea with the tea company which he was able to trace to Ching Dynasty Kuang Hsu period A.D. 1874 – A.D. 1907 by the label attached. The problem now is that it needs to be open up to check the content which will damage the packing. How to tell the difference between the old tea and young tea requires the skill. I attended a tea promotion session and old tea was brewed and served for testing and my skill in telling the difference was no good because only old tea was served but not new tea. At the coffee shop I mentioned in my blog earlier, there was the kind of Chinese tea served in porcelain teapot which difference can be felt. I only bring my own teapot and the hot water and Chinese tea is supplied by the coffee shop. I usually share with an elderly couple who is the owners of the food stall and other friends and they keep telling me that they like to drink the tea from my teapot because it keeps them alert. I have been keeping this to myself.
Another visitor from Singapore searching for “buy vintage bowls singapore”. Since he cannot find vintage bowls in Singapore means there are not many importers in Singapore. In my earlier blog I had advised collectors to keep good contacts with shops that sell antiques, antiques dealers and freelance antique dealers so that they will let you know when they have the vintage bowls in stock otherwise the chance in your lifetime will be gone.
There are two visitors, one from Singapore searching for “Ipoh Antique Shop” and another from Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang searching for “Ipoh antique dealer”. These two visitors are searching for antiques suppliers. I do not know or heard of antique shops or antique dealers in Ipoh. I only know “Ku Tong Wong” (King in Antiques) in Ipoh was when a friend of mine introduced a friend to buy a Yuan dynasty A.D. 1279 to A. D. 1368 item and the buyer showed it to Ku Tong Wong and claimed to be a fake or copy and this piece was brought to Singapore for authentication by Mr. Lu Yaw and whatever happened, I don’t know and the matter has gone silent. At first strong aim of wanting to return this item but my sale condition require written remarks from experts which is to show whether experts are reliable or not and there was no way for me to tell collectors(local or foreign) these problems and the way they behave is to throw anger at my father and myself. After all I don’t know what antique shops and antique dealers in Ipoh sell and it is difficult for me say anything. In this blog in the earlier page, I had advised that you have to be your own judge, study, understand then buy and not buy and regret later. In this blog, I had created awareness that do not become a collector if you are not. I felt that many that have read this blogs do not understand my ENGLISH.
Another visitor from Beranang, Selangor searching for “baba nyonya antic plate”. The answer is inside my blog and I do not want to repeat what is stated.

Another from Kuala Lumpur searching for “danasty furniture petaling jaya”. I do not know furniture dealers because I had given up furniture business after Toh Puan Bunny Suffian passed on, she collects and introduced friends to collect antique furniture. I remembered she used to say “we had an enjoyable time” during the time she was collecting. Toh Puan Bunny Suffian collects baba nyonya furniture, Venetian mirrors with beveled edge, baba nyonya and Kelantan silver ware like betel nut boxes, mosquito net hooks, pillow and bolster ends, kerosang (brooch) and many silver ware that needs repair.