The snuff bottle for example, a popular item hundreds of years ago, is featured heavily at the expo. Although most are made by contemporary artists, they're still luxury goods because of the superb artistic skill used in their production. Zhang Tieshan, is the only national art expert in this field. He produces ancient symbols on the bottle.
Zhang Tieshan, Snuff Bottle Painter, said, "The snuff bottle used to be overlooked in antique collecting, because it's so small. It was more popular overseas. I think this event is a good method to promote this type of item."
Purple clay tea pots are another type of antique that is comparatively affordable. Traditional techniques and a connection with the world of the literati add prestige to these tea pots.
Xu Gang, a retired sports teacher, has collected dozens of purple clay pots. He's just bought another one, which has cost him 50-thousand yuan, or around 8-thousand US dollars. It's not cheap for the average retired person.
Xu Gang, Visitor, said, "I bought one initially because I liked it. It has a great artistic value and a unique Chinese aethetic, so there's room for them to increase in value."
The really costly antiques that are at least a century old, are attracting high-end collectors. This dealer from Shenzhen says the pieces shown here are 80 percent genuine, and the remaining 20 percent are high-quality replicas. He says the cheapest item here costs a million yuan, or tens of thousands of US dollars. But five collectors have already expressed interest.
So there's truly something for everyone here at the expo at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center.
The organizer says that in a market filled with fakes, this fair provides a lot of high-quality genuine antiques. Certainly a venue gathering a such variety of collectables both geniune antiques and some fine-quality antique-style items, is worth visiting. Song Yaotian, CCTV.
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