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July, 2009

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EAST MEETS WEST: Asian Antiques

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.

Tastes have changed. 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.

As the supply of antiques dwindles, there’s more pressure on foreign contacts to replenish the supply with reproductions. "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.

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)

 

Destinations for Asian Arts in Colorado:

Outside of Colorado:

  • The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, one of the largest museums in the world for Asian art: www.asianart.org

  • Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California: www.hakone.com

Asian Antiques in Colorado:

  • Hanakago Antiques, Anita Meyer, sells by appointment, 303-938-8989,  and through a website: www.hanakago.com; Japanese.

  • BlueCrate, 335 West Main Street, Trinidad, 81082; 719-846-4005. Rustic Asian, many from Tibet.

  • Ca Shi, 3458 Walnut Street, Denver, 80205; 303-297-2947; Asian

  • East-West Designs, 303 Josephine Street, Denver, 80206; 303-316-9520; Japanese

  • Indochine, 2525 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, 80302; 303-444-7734; Many pieces from Southeast Asia.

  • Warner Antiques, 1401 South Broadway, 80210; 303-722-9173; www.warnersantiques.com, eclectic, including Asian. 

  • Eron Johnson Antiques, Ltd., 451 Broadway, Denver, 80203; 303-777-8700; www.eronjohnsonantiques.com; eclectic, including South Asia

  • DecorAsian, 1500 Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, 80302; 303-938-1107.

  • 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:

  • "The Japanese House: Architecture and Interiors," by Noboru Murata and Alexandra Black, Charles E. Tuttle Publishing, 2000

  • "Japan: The Art of Living," by Amy Sylvester Katoh, Charles E. Tuttle Publishing, 1990

  • "Chinese Country Antiques" by Andrea and Lynde McCormick, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2002, Schifferbk@aol.com  or see www.schifferbooks.com

  • "The Chinese Potter" by Margaret Medley, Phaidon, 1988. 

  • "Asian Art" by Lark E. Mason, Antique Collector's Club, 2002; www.antique-acc.com or e-mail: sales@antique-acc.com.

  • "Treasures of the Chinese Scholar" by Fang Jing Pei, Wetherhill, 1997. 


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