AS the DJIA and Nikkei are plummeting almost daily to new lows, with the dollar and yen surging as the Euro drops the question of the year seems to be…”How will this affect the antiques market? and in particular the Asian antiques  market”, after all the middle market for Americana impaled itself 5 years ago, after all the now broke pinheads bought houses they couldn’t really afford and now are in even worse shape.  After paying those mortgages little is left after making the monthly Wide Screen Payment and Car Lease for much else. Will the Fed cut interest rates to ZERO? or close to it?

 I digress, So forget about people loosing their houses and jobs, pensions being wiped out, health insurance being cancelled. The people in our industry want to know…”Will the Asian Market remain STRONG!!!”.  The answer is in a word…”Are you kidding? NO! is the short answer for now.”.

Less money means just that, less jobs means less money, collapsing stock markets and failed bank credit means less money.  Don;t you remember the lost decade…? in Japan?? So….try and follow me on this, when there is less money people prioritize spending much more carefully. Here is the order:

1. Housing
2. Food
3. Heat
4. Electricity
5. Cable
6. Clothes for the family
7. Car payments
8. Insurance payments
9. Basic home maintenance
10. Minimum Credit Card payment.
11. Retirement (at age 90)
12. School tuition

and antiques….well its down here someplace…

So, keep reading about that  Kangxi vase, the Qianlong jade animal, maybe go to  http://www.Abebooks.com once in a while and find a bargain.  This too shall pass!

So do I really think things are that bad? NO…not really, Its just good once in a while to get some perspective. I think values for the very best things will continue to rise, the middle market will level off and collectors will collect.  Go to a good museum, enjoy the Asian Art, European Art and whatever else there gets your attention.

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For those of you looking for something to see and someplace to go and you happen to enjoy Asian Art and you happen to live in Indianapolis or St. Louis or within driving distance or EITHER place.   Keep These Dates: Indianapolis Museum of Art (October 26–January 11, 2009); St. Louis Museum of Art (February 22–May 17, 2009).

The most important exhibition of Asian Imperial Art of the Ming Dynasty in many years will be on view.  “Power & Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty” organized by Li He, Associate Curator of Chinese Art of the Palace Museum and Michael Knight, Senior Curator of Chinese Art and Deputy Director of Strategic Programs and   Partnerships. The exhibition has on loan stunningly rare items from the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) in Beijing, the Nanjing Municipal Museum, and the Shanghai Museum, Chinas three most important Asian Art Museums.

1907 was the second year of the running of the famed Bermuda Race from New York City to Hamilton Bermuda and was won as they say by MILES by a Maritime legend. The Boat was the 85 foot sloop  “Dervish” which arrived 5 hours ahead of Lila another class boat in the race.

The following year in 1908 “Dervish won again.  The yacht was owned by the renowned yachtsman Henry Morss the then Commodore of the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead Massachusetts.  The Dervish made the trip in a stunningly fast 89 hours.

In 1908 the start of the race was moved from New York City to Marblehead as it gave a better alignment nautically for the race  to the Island.  To this day, the Dervish remains a sailing legend on the island and in many other places as well.

Fast forward to the 1990’s and the passing of Sherman Morss {Henry’s Son} in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Sherman was a highly regarded and well known yachtsman himself and owner of the J-Boat “Rainbow” an America’s Cup Contender.  Sherman Morss was a supporter of yachting and “The Cup” all his life.

I had the opportunity to meet him a few years before he died, he wasn’t well, BUT he was still a classically great New England guy. After he passed away my then business partner Robert Landry and I handled the personal property and conducted the subsequent auction of Sherman Morss’s estate.

Included in the auction was a considerable amount of Yachting material and memorabilia.  Included among one lot I bought myself at the sale a wooden box containing over 100 Class Plate Positive slides taken aboard the Dervish during the race to Bermuda. 

Recently we found the ONLY company capable of creating true black and white processed images onto archival paper from very Hi Resolution Scans (3200 DPI) of these great glass plates. We will be offering these here under the Maritime catagory.

In addition we will also be offering other images including Marblehead and Gloucester harbors during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Some done by Eleanor Park Custis and scanned from proof images from her original large negatives.

The other day a friend and customer asked me; “What is the best Asian Art reference site on the internet.” While many museums and dealers have websites and a number of hobbyist group sites like Gotheborg.com display a mix of ceramics and reign marks and have a contributor board. , nearly all have done a very poor job at indexing, populating and posting their sites.

They all tend to have a dozen or fewer images, all too small and maybe a title and little else. This includes the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and the Metropolitan Museums of Art in New York. These two get at best a “D” for content, information, ease of use and image quality. In other cases they show things of such low quality, but lots of them it might end up making you hate Asian Art.

So, who has the hands down BEST site?

For me the answer is easy. For the very best in quality and depth online The Freer and Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. wins hands down.

This is the Asian art reference informational and image site of all sites!! Fantastic is an understatement.

So you might ask how many images and text captions are on this site? Its hard to say actually. If you include; Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian and cover Ceramics, Paintings, , Prints, Bronzes and Carvings etc. somewhere around 5,500 images are available and ALL FOR FREE!!!!    ALL the images Enlarge!!! For a quick peek have a look at the Chinese Art Section at the Freer - Sackler.

Yes I said all the data is free. Its free because its the Smithsonian Institution and the place belongs to us all the American people. If you add Islamic and middle eastern stuff, the images total over 6,000.

Enjoy it, the images can be saved onto your own computer as desktops for your computer, you can create a Private Collection on the site of you favorite images and things..sort of like having your own museum. So you can at last Collect Song bowls, Ming Paintings, Neolithic Bronzes, and Yuan Basins if your thing is Chinese…if Japan is your area of interest you can build a group of screens and scrolls.  From a personal standpoint, the monchromes and are particularly excellent.

The possibilities are endless, the next rainy day you might even find something there to interest your children. If you decide its as good as I do..maybe make a donation of a couple dollars.

Have a peek at the site..

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/default.htm

My friend Michael Grogan in Dedham is having a two day sale this weekend. If you’ve never gone to a Grogan sale and you like auctions, you might like his. He, his wife Nancy and a great guy named Hercules Pappachristo and of course everyone else {I don’t know all their names} work hard and put on good straight up auctions. Mike, prior to moving to Boston {over 20 years ago} and hanging out his own shingle was at Sothebys.

The auction this weekend will include a portrait by John LaFarge and a very good still life by Henriette Alice Ronner. On the front of the auction ad is a a Mahogany Cellerette called English..we sold one that looked virtually identical years ago, which turned out to be from Philadelphia. Grogans also nearly always has a great selection of oriental rugs.

Also the sale will have bunch of good accessories including French, German and China Trade wares.  Of particular interest are some Monumental Sevres Vases and Urns. Tons of Limoge and Meissan as well.

THis weekends sale will run two days….and they have a website http://www.groganco.com/

Looks like a good sale..