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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Home Design -> East Meets West
 EAST
MEETS WEST: Asian Antiques
By Niki Hayden
As antiques go global with sites like eBay.com, it’s no wonder that
collectors are reaching out to other cultures. If the lure of Asia can be found
in design trends like feng shui, discovering a passion for Chinese porcelain or Japanese lacquer boxes can’t be far behind.
 With the brisk trade between Asia and the United States as well as the number of
Americans spending time in China, Japan, Singapore or Taiwan for business
or government careers and new collectors are born.
Their home away from home lends them the opportunity to gather expertise in
the history, culture and art of the people they have come to love. And, before
they know it, they’ve made valuable contacts, found master artisans and
uncovered out-of-the-way shops. On their return home, they pack up the art they
have collected with the idea of setting up a gallery and sharing the arts and
antiques they have enjoyed.
 Anita Meyer lived in Tokyo, Japan, for 17 years. Immersed in a culture that
prized handcrafts, she first encountered the aesthetics of Japanese culture when
she signed up for a class in Ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging. "You
begin to see things from a different perspective," she says, "and
baskets as containers complement the flowers." Anita began to collect baskets and
pottery as a foundation for her new interest.  In time, the vessels took on more
importance than the flowers. She savored the understated, rustic,
asymmetrical designs that Japanese artisans have made so famous.
"I liked the folk art aspect of the Japanese culture. Because some
pieces were utilitarian, there wasn’t a lot of information available. I wasn’t
influenced by a single piece, but if it had a sculptural quality, I was drawn to
it," she says. Anita’s collection includes astonishing baskets, most made
from bamboo. Some are classic shapes, but many are whimsical. All come with the
gloss of patina accrued over time.
 Eventually, she branched out into textiles and furniture, screens and
bronzes. Like most collectors, Anita discovered a style of her own. Her eye
fastened on subdued colors, natural materials and abstract sculptural
characteristics to be found in three-dimensional objects.  Her collection looks
unified and provides a glimpse into the unique Japanese design that has
influenced art around the world. From Frank Lloyd Wright, to abstract
expressionist painters, Japan’s prints, Zen expressionism and elegant
simplicity have made inroads with Western sensibilities. Partly, it can be
traced to history.
 Japan’s antiques have been protected. Even during
World War II, most precious
objects were hidden safely, and Kyoto, the capital of art and culture in Japan,
was never bombed. The links to antiquity were intact and honored. And newly
found wealth in Japan made them expensive. In contrast, Japan’s neighbor, China, was
decimated by war and fine objects obliterated during Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution.
The profound differences can be seen in the antiques that today are exported
from China. Long deprived of anything new or elegant, the population hungers for
anticipated good times.
 "The Chinese are so proud of their new wealth," says Susan Colpitt,
who imports Chinese antiques. "One family I know in Beijing has no
plumbing, but they have a new car. They don’t know how to drive it, so they
have to hire a driver, but families now have TVs, computers, pianos and cars. So
much has changed in the last ten years," she says.
Susan studied Chinese in college and later lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong. She
speaks the language and, over time, came to know the antiques dealers up and
down the coast of China. In some cities, shards of Ming and Qing Dynasty porcelain are all that
are left from fine old vessels.  These are examples of the widespread smashing of
fine art. "Some people recognized the value of the shards and hid
them," she says. Now jewelers incorporate the shards into jewelry and small
boxes.
"Many of the things that were not destroyed went into Army warehouses.
The army is supposed to be self-sufficient so now they are selling some of these
items. Also, they took a portion and re-distributed it throughout the country.
Beautiful things were given to farmers. A beautiful table might be given
to a farmer who used it to slaughter his chickens," she says.
 And now that the Chinese are beginning to see their middle class grow, Susan
says many no longer want old furniture. The altar tables, painted chests, chairs
and tables, worn and glossy, are sold and exchanged for newer items. Few are reminiscent
of elaborate, highly lacquered or embellished art associated with the pre-Communist
ruling classes. Much of what Susan imports is rustic. These are pieces that have
survived from rural provinces.
 "Many of these rustic pieces go well with American primitive pieces,
too," Susan points out. The short stools cut from thick planks, sturdy
baskets meant to hold vegetables, or boxes solidly made to measure rice—these
are utilitarian objects that never were smashed because they weren't associated with
wealth or power. Taken out of their culture, they no longer serve their original
purposes, but Americans prize the unique shapes and sizes, finding new uses for
them. The differences between the Chinese love for symmetry and balance differ
markedly from the Japanese love for a brush stroke with a flourish, a
composition off-balance. Even with the simplest everyday objects, artistic
choices are culturally determined.
 Blue and white pottery line shelves. Small lacquered boxes once held
documents. Wooden pitchforks stand upright in a large basket. Bamboo kitchen
cabinets provided elemental storage. Apothecary bureaus studded with dozens of
small drawers held healing herbs. Tiny embroidered children’s shoes have been
passed down in the family. Other tiny shoes, once worn
by women with bound feet are framed behind glass. It’s rare to see women with
bound feet in China now, Susan says. Most have died, or can no longer walk.
Sturdy boxes, painted simply, stored grain. Rock troughs fed pigs and large
wooden bucks hoisted water from wells. These are the cast-offs from everyday
life.
You'll find a few surprises, too. An unusual presentation box that dates to 1740 was filled with silks and
gifts to be delivered to an official—a kind of bribe in its time. One
graceful sculpture is religious—the statue of Guan Yin, a Buddhist figure that
dates to 1750. Her face is serene and lovely. Oddly enough, she survived for
hundreds of years while other religious sculptures did not. The smile on her
face could tell a story, but will remain a mystery.
"They are tearing down beautiful old buildings now," Susan says
with a sigh, "and building uninteresting new buildings." This is a
common refrain that Anita echoes, too. The younger generation in Japan no longer
prizes antiques. They’ve incorporated Western modern furnishings into their
homes.
 Rustic Japanese items, in particular, don’t look glamorous in their
high-tech world. The fact that collectors are allowed to take antique pieces out
of the country is an example that handcrafts have lost value in the mainstream
society. Not to Anita. Collecting antiques, she says, is a passion more than a
business. And finding them requires a delicate relationship with Japanese
dealers. The intricate negotiation, gift giving, protocol and cultural
sensitivity is far more essential than mastery of the language. So much
communication in Japan is subtle and wordless—more of an approach and attitude
than anything else.
 Both Anita and Susan say that they have encountered fraud with the sale of
Asian antiques--on both Asian and American shores. As the supply of antiques
dwindles, there’s more pressure on foreign contacts to replenish the supply
with reproductions. "I’ve been taken, too," Susan says. "You
have to have a trained eye," Anita adds, "there’s only so much you
can get from books." Not many books abound in the antiques they collect.
Scrutiny and caution become close associates.
"These things won’t last forever," Susan says. As China
modernizes, traditional crafts will go by the wayside. Anita says the same
impulse can be found in Japan: "The older
generation laments that their children don’t care about the Japanese arts.
They wonder who will take over the care of these things." What
one culture may cast aside, another picks up and cherishes. Like all antiques,
whether global or local, their future and survival are in the hands of those who
care for them—even if home is very far away.
Photos from top to bottom:
- Japanese kitchen cabinet (left), a mizuya made from keyaki (zelkova)
hardwood, the preferred hardwood in Japan, late 1800s.
- Japanese pottery, Shigaraki tea jar, 1900
- Anita Meyer
- Japanese Ikebana flower arranging basket (right), early to mid-1900s.
- Japanese textiles, obi sashes (left), silk, used to tie kimonos.
- Japanese Ikebana flower arranging basket (right), mid 1900s, sits on a
hand-tooled bamboo carved low table with oribe pottery.
- Japanese Tsutsumi pottery, a storage jar, in back is Kamakura-bori red
lacquer plate--kanji for happiness mid 1900s, Tetsubin tea kettle with
hailstone design early to mid 1900s, set of five lacquer trays designed for
sweets, Mizusashi water container for tea ceremonies, lacquer
box.
- Susan Colpitt
- Chinese chest with porcelain vessel, chest dates to 1880 in the style of
Tienjin, lacquered fir, porcelain is a dragon vase from 1900
- Chinese pickle jars
- Chinese shoes from bound feet (framed)
- Chinese rustic baskets
- Chinese painted chest, from the interior of China, Gansu province, about
1880
- Chinese Buddhist sculpture of Guan Jin from 1750 (right)
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Destinations for Asian Arts in Colorado:
Outside of Colorado:
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The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, one of the
largest museums in the world for Asian art: www.asianart.org
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Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California: www.hakone.com
Asian Antiques in Colorado:
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Hanakago Antiques, Anita Meyer, sells by
appointment, 303-938-8989, and through a
website: www.hanakago.com; Japanese.
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China Coast, Susan Colpitt, 1930 Central Avenue, Suite
H, Boulder, Colorado, 80301, 720-406-1628; www.china-coast.com;
Chinese.
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BlueCrate, 335 West Main Street, Trinidad, 81082;
719-846-4005. Rustic Asian, many from Tibet.
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Ca Shi, 3458 Walnut Street, Denver, 80205;
303-297-2947; Asian
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East-West Designs, 303 Josephine Street, Denver, 80206;
303-316-9520; Japanese
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Indochine, 2525 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, 80302;
303-444-7734; Many pieces from Southeast Asia.
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Warner Antiques, 1401 South Broadway, 80210;
303-722-9173; www.warnersantiques.com,
eclectic, including Asian.
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Eron Johnson Antiques, Ltd., 451 Broadway, Denver,
80203; 303-777-8700; www.eronjohnsonantiques.com;
eclectic, including South Asia
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DecorAsian, 1500 Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, 80302; 303-938-1107.
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Vintage Kimono, 7209 Valtec Court, Boulder; www.vintagekimono.com,
with
outlets at Rockin' Robin's Retro & Resale, in The Emporium, 136 2nd
Avenue, Niwot and Susan Melching Skin Care at Folsom and Pine Streets,
Boulder.
Recommended Reading:
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"The Japanese House: Architecture and
Interiors," by Noboru Murata and Alexandra Black, Charles E. Tuttle
Publishing, 2000
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"Japan: The Art of Living," by Amy Sylvester
Katoh, Charles E. Tuttle Publishing, 1990
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"Chinese Country Antiques" by Andrea and
Lynde McCormick, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2002, Schifferbk@aol.com or see www.schifferbooks.com
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"The Chinese Potter" by Margaret Medley,
Phaidon, 1988.
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"Asian Art" by Lark E. Mason, Antique
Collector's Club, 2002; www.antique-acc.com
or e-mail: sales@antique-acc.com.
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"Treasures of the Chinese Scholar" by Fang
Jing Pei, Wetherhill, 1997.
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