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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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

Tomorrow Harlowe and Powell are having a sale and in it are a few things that looking interesting. Problem though, NO one there knows a thing about Asian art, Nada, Nothing, ZIP.

Arghh So I call, a nice young lady there answered the phone, the “antique person” is busy, so I asked her about  a particular lot. She says’ we don’t have an expert or even have access to one,  so she did try to help. She  admitted the things I was asking about come from a regular consignor who is “troublesome” translated means he/she brings in fakes.  The piece in question was a very good looking carved lacquer box, other things in the sale vases, Kangxi looking things are out of the question. 

Its too bad, because once in a while they get DO get in some very respectable things from blue and white to bronzes to Celadons. (I personally like Celadons)

Ming Lonquan Celadon, plcombs inventory

So this begs the question “Why on earth do they take stuff from this person?”

Answer…they are dense and amateurish. Nice enough but why do auction houses take in things time and time again from delaers who lie to them..when I ran live auctions one fib ended the consignors contact with me.

Ohh now I sound cranky and mean..didn;t mean to.