DECEMBER 25, 2000 - JANUARY 1, 2001 VOL. 156 NO. 25/26

Illustration for TIME by Daniel Egneus.

New Tricks for Buying Old Furniture in China
By DAFFYD RODERICK

Doreen Chan fell in love the moment she walked into the tiny furniture shop in Gongbei, a southern Chinese city just north of Macau. "It was the most perfect Tibetan cabinet I'd ever seen," recalls the advertising executive. "The painting was vibrant orange and green, the wood a bit battered with age. It was exactly what I was searching for." When she returned to Singapore, her first month with the new objet was bliss. Then Chan started noticing small piles of sawdust underneath. At first she just swept them up, figuring the cabinet was simply settling into the new climate. But when the piles started growing taller, she took a closer look and discovered that the cabinet was infested with termites and suffering from dry rot. When the termites moved on to her Ming-dynasty table, the love affair was over.

Shopping for Chinese antique furniture is part of the fun of having a 5,000-year-old neighbor. But it can end in tears if you neglect some simple steps. Most importantly: know what you're after before you leave home. "A lot of people are really confused when they shop for antiques," says Karin Weber, owner of an eponymous antiques outlet in Hong Kong. "It doesn't matter that much if an object isn't 1,000 years old. What matters is that you like it and you paid a fair price."

To get the piece you covet without breaking the bank, you'll need to invest time in comparison-shopping. Hong Kong and Macau have plenty of antique stores where you can begin the process. Take a look at the items and ask where they came from and how old they are. Most of these outlets employ English-speakers, so there isn't as much of a language barrier as there is in mainland China. In Macau, many shops make new "antiques" with handy features like drawers perfectly sized for compact discs. If you like something, buy it. But the mainland offers a much wider range of choice—and the opportunity to pay less than half the price.

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There's nothing like walking into the famous Wanbo Furniture & Antiques warehouses in Shanghai and seeing hectares of walnut desks, cherry-wood stools and carved boxes piled to the ceiling. In Shanghai, the shops along Hongqiao Road offer pieces from all over the country. Another place to look is in Xiangzhou, just over the border from Macau. If the prospect of heading into the breach alone is too daunting, join one of the many guided shopping tours that Weber and others offer.

Once you find the object of your desire, a few precautions can help ensure that you will enjoy it as much at home. If you are having purchases shipped to you, clarify on paper exactly what they are. Have the shop owner write a detailed description of the item and affix his chop to the document. Bring a camera and snap photos of the pieces from different angles. If what arrives isn't what you bought, you'll be a few steps ahead of "your-word-versus-his." If there is damage, you can prove that it happened during shipping.

Negotiate to pay half the bill up front and the balance when your shipment arrives. That way, if something goes wrong, you haven't lost the full amount—and the seller has incentive to follow through. If the shopkeeper won't agree to this, think twice about dealing with him. Before your piece gets on the slow boat from China, the shop should pad it with corrugated cardboard and then custom-build a wooden crate. Shipping is the riskiest part of buying wooden furniture, which can easily be crushed, dented or cracked. Needless to say, it's important to insure all pieces for full value.

Once your furniture arrives, you should treat the new family member with respect, especially if it is an elderly piece. If you frequently use air-conditioning, place a glass of water inside a cabinet to provide humidity and prevent it from drying out and cracking. To help keep wood limber, coat it with beeswax furniture polish a few times a year. And if you see that telltale sawdust, fight back early with a syringe of a termite killer like Cuprinol. Another trick is to soak a cotton ball in eucalyptus oil, place it over the termite hole and seal the entire piece with cling wrap. A small infestation doesn't have to mean the end of a relationship.

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