A Stroll down memory lane in Guangzhou (and many Suo Zhenhai copies)

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  All

I've been in Guangzhou  this past  week  and    had  half a  day spare,  so  I decided to  visit the  bottle   shops  I  discovered  here  about   4  years   ago, and   which I  have  not revisited  since    late  2010.

Bill  Patrick  will remember  my   delight   at   finding a  little   group  of  tourist  shops  on Shamian  Island,  just behind the  White  Swan  Hotel    in about   2008.

Shamian  Island  is where the     western  traders used  to  have their  "factories" for  storing  tea , silk and  opium   during the  mid  1880's. It's  a  charming,  quiet  place  with   old    late  19th  century   balustrade   3- storey houses,   pedestrian  precincts, and  surprisingly  very  few  people   except  wedding  couples  having their   pre-marriage  pics   taken next to the  old  buildings.

I  found     3    tourist  shops   that  sold  medium- class  IPBs  ( mostly by minor  artists),  one  of   whom  was  run  by a  young  guy  called  Peter  Liu  who  himself  was a  3rd tier  Hengshui   arstist  and   had some  quite  good  Ji  school  bottles.

It was Peter  Liu  who  sold  me  first copy  of  CIPMA  :  2nd  hand  -  very battered -  but   PURE   GOLD  to  me  as a rookie  collector  at that  time.

How  times  have  changed   since  then .... but then  that's  China  . Leave    any place  for    more than  one year and when you come  back it's unrecognisable.

Since  I was last there  in 2010  the govt  have   completely   re-covered  the    roads   with very  tasteful   paving  stones,   and  a  Starbucks  has   discreetly  opened  in one  of the  buildings.   

 Funny to  see   a  street sign  post   which  points   variously    to : " 1887  home  of   Mr Ho   Wong  Ling"   , "Site of the     1876   Customs   House"  ,  "  Jardine  Mattheson  Office   1890 -  1915  "  ,  "Starbucks" !

Two  of the   3   shops   had  only  a  very few   junk  tourist  bottles left ,  except  - very  curiously  -     several    Suo  Zhen Hai  look-alike  bottles ,some  signed  with  other   names, some unsigned  ( so  in case  of  spotting  what  you think  is a    SZH   DO be  careful !  All that  glitters  is  not  gold)

Peter  Liu's   shop had  moved   round the  corner  and    because  he  had not been back to Hengshui  for  quite some  time,  he  had  no  good bottles.  But  anyway,  he  said  it's not  worth  to  buy     real bottles  anymore, because  he  has to  pay  so much for them that  he cannot  sell them unless  someone like  me    strolls  in once     per year.  (  Tourists  would  never  pay  more than  US$ 100  for an IPB) 

So the   recent price  rise    seems  to have   wiped  out  those     tourist  shops  who  used  to   do a  side-line  in  real bottles ( same   as in BJ ) , the  only exception  being  - it seems  - Ms Wang  Hong's  shop  in SH

Talking of  SH, I will     be there   round  about   weekend    19-20  Feb if   anyone  on the  Forum  happens to  be  in SH  at that time

Cheers   Peter

[Steven]

Hi Peter,

Glad to know you are in Guangzhou, I were working in Guangzhou 1998-2001, I love the city, love the food over there, I went back there last year, only 9 years after, It almost a completely new city to me, totally got lost. Only some high rise buildings near my working place are pretty much no big change, I even can't the place I was living anymore...anyway, that is China like you said..

Enjoy the time there, enjoy the DiM sum for me....

[George]

Sounds like your having a nice time Peter ! 

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Peter's story of the GZ dealers further illustrates what is now happening ALL OVER China.  80-90pct of the shops/dealers where I bought things since 1999 are now LONG GONE.  Most of this is since 2007, I have noticed.. I really don't know what the relation to the date is, but just a strange coincidence, to me anyway.  The cycle is accelerating and there are now even less and less shops that even just have student painted bottles.  Remember that the base raw material price for a decent glass bottle is now 25-50rmb, and for lead crystal (to use Joey's terms), is about 75-100 rmb already, and rising faster and faster.  Add to that the student's labor time (I had an extrapolation of that here somewhere but lost it), and the writing is on the wall.  There will be a time very soon where student bottles will no longer be able to be bought for less than $100, ..

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  All

Pat's email  just about   says  it  all.

And  full  marks   to   Pat  for  hitting the  nail  on the   head  ( as  usual  -  Pat is one  pretty   bright  guy !)

The "golden"  days   are  over  as  regards   strolling  round     discreet-but-high-class  "niche"  tourist  IPB  shops  and    picking  up  a  few  bargains,   just as the   HK   Hollywood  Road   flea  markets  ( where  Ian and  Kay  Hardy   cut their   teeth   and built their  collection in the   1960's)   are  now  long  since   dead and  and  gone  - at  least  for  undiscovered   bargains

That's life........

Just  so  glad  I  caught the   tail end  of  it ....

So now   where     do we    go   for  bargains  ?  

Well of course the    true  Mother  Lode  :   Hengshui,    Zibo and   Shantou  ( sorry  to  say there's  nothing  much  left  of the  "Jing"  school  in BeiJING, as  far as  I can    see)  

And that's  where the    local  Chinese   and TW  and  S'Pore   collectors  are  flocking , by-passing  all the   dealers  that  we  know  of  in the   West   via  the  ICSBS,     and/or  other    dealer -  channels.  

I think  I  still   command  a  modicum  of  respect  in Hengshui  for  having  recognized the  pure  native  talent  there  and  made the  pilgrimage  in person   a few  times   recently , and done my  absolute  best to  help  promote the   artists,  while  I could , when I could

But  that   will  soon be  water  under the  bridge  when the   tidal wave  of  cash-rich local collectors  hit   town

My  sole  objective  these  past   few  years  has  always  been to  push the  cause  of the   younger  ( and older  ) artists   so I can  hardly  complain  when   their bottles    sky-rocket  in price  !  

I just  did not  expect  that  the  buying  power  would  come  from  within  China , not   from the   West.

Lot's     still to  learn  and  lot's  of  miles  still  under  the   dashboard    still to   drive   yet. This   saga   is  not  yet  carved  in stone .

When   1990 (  even  early 2000 )   - era   Wang Guanyu  bottles*  sell for   2 x  prime  Yan Yutian   top   auction- priced  bottles, one  must seriously  think  again  !

Cheers   Peter


*  see  my   recent  posting  on  WGY