Experts Needed

There is a visitor from La Jolla, California searching for “oriental arts and antiques penang malaysia” which is very easy after all visitors know Penang Malaysia and the next thing to do is to look for dealers, freelance dealers or shops that sells only antiques. The best way is to keep the contacts with dealers, freelance dealers or shops that sell only antiques to update what they have in stock and this is the way it should work out or stay there for sometime to source what you want for yourself. A quote from Julius Ceasar “I came, I saw, I conquered” and this quote applies to “I came, I saw, I bought”.

 At present there are not many dealers who want to stock many items because of 1) fakes or reproduction. 2) holding business capital up for too long and difficult to sell. Example there are so many reproduction of nyonya ware and to my surprise that an from a prominent family is said to be Bandung copy and made it easier to throw it away than to sell it and being accused of selling fakes.

The bitterness and sufferings dealing in antiques was that collectors do not want to learn what is genuine of fakes or reproduction and even condition like money back guaranteed is not workable and was said to be illegal and against public policy in civilian law. (extracted from Civil Action 5934 0f 1978 in the Magistrate Court, Kuala Lumpur) making sufferings are mine and comforts are yours.

The people who can really authenticate antiques are 1) William Young Willetts, 2)Peter Clague Malaysia, 3) Mr. Mohammad,  an Indonesian  staying in Malaysia, 4) Mr. Che Mokhtar Bin Che Ali Malaysia and former Magistrate, 5) Mr. Lu Yaw, Singapore, 6) Roxanna Brown, Thailand, 7) Mr. Peter Lam, Hong Kong,  8) Ku Tong Wong, Ipoh, Malaysia and Professor Peacock, Australia and these are the experts who will  help so that everybody will understand what antiques are.

Always remember that all artefacts are imitations unless and until proven genuine and I notice that the older post in this blog which is informative and is not on display. 

Pen Collectors

There are three very LUCKY VISITORS visited my blog and shared their searches. Visitor 1) from San Jose California searching “nyonya tea cup shop in kl.” has succeeded in getting nyonya tea cup in kl and not in Bandung or Jing dezhen.  Visitor 2)  from Puchong  Selangor searching “vintage watches sale K.L. my has succeeded  to find the place that sells what he wanted. I have been searching for such and could not find but I still kept my collection and apart from what I stated I have a Audemars Piguet watch which is selling for Rm.150,000 and it has increase in price. When watch collectors saw this watch, many are interested but they do not have the money to own it. Visitor 3) from Seremban , Negeri Sembilan found the place “cheap fountain pen seremban” which I cannot assess the prices without checking on the conditions of the fountain pens. I bought my Mont Blanc 149 for Rm209.60, Platinum made in Japan gold plated over solid silver which is one model, the other is wrapped with leather and the third is solid silver which I paid for Rm80. Swan safety lever pens by Marbie todd co. for Rm.80 and these pens are new pens old stock. Many other pens are bought in lot. I have about 400 pens some of which are used pens like Parker Vacuumatic, Parker 51,21,45, Duofold , Sheaaffer’s pfm , valiant, crest, connoisseur, Targa models of the slim and thick. There are so many like Conway Stewart, Watermans, Dunhill, Dupont , Cartier, Caran d Ache. The name list goes on and on because I bought up the old stock from one of the old pen shop. There is one pen in my collection which I paid for Rm. 300 and showed it to a pen shop owner and he told me that to sell this pen in Malaysia for between Rm. 500 to Rm.700 would be a problem because local collectors complain too expensive but in England it would fetch Stg. Pounds 1,000 which shows different price, different market.  A man sold me a pen for Rm. 250 and he wanted to buy it back and I quoted for Rm.600, he offered me Rm. 380 and I am still keeping this pen because I know it is difficult in getting beautiful pens for that I can afford.  Some of the collectors may not know the beauty in Sheaffers’ snokel pocket pen and for a thick pen like pfm it has inlaid nibs. This Sheaffer’s pfm pens are pens that I have been using every day.

 I am glad there are collectors who are not dependent on others to find the way to source for them