VietNamNet - Visiting Mai Thoi Chinh’s house in Hanoi, I was pleasantly surprised to discover his modest life didn’t match my expectations of how an antique collector would live.
Chinh appeared at the door in a blue singlet and dripping with silver bracelets and chains. Inside his two-storey house, antiques lined the walls of every room. His collection is as valuable and tender as a “lover” he says, and they demand his care and affections as does a woman.
“I see my antiques with the eyes of a lover because they bring a sense of spiritual satisfaction. When I feel sad, the antiques bring me happiness,” he said all misty-eyed, adding that his passion for antiques was so strong, that he had foregone a mobile phone, lush clothes and even vacations to dote on his collection.
Chinh has something in the vicinity of 2,000 antiques, ranging from ornate ceramic vases and jewellery boxes to humble cups and mugs that date from the 16th century Qing dynasty in China, and as far back as the 10th and 11th centuries, during Ly, Tran and Le dynasties in Vietnam. He also has incense-burners, parallel sentence boards, poetry boards in gold and copper leaf, as well as a gallery’s worth of traditional paintings in silk and paper.
Chinh started collecting at 18, although his fascination was fostered when he was just a little boy.
Chinh said that after the 1954 land reforms, the redistribution of wealth saw many poor people acquire assets, including many antiques. The poor had little use for ornamental objects, and promptly pawned the wares for food or livestock. For a young man like Chinh, this opened the means to satisfy his desire for the flashy objects. He would secretly take rice from his home, and exchange it for his objects of beauty.
During the 1970’s, Chinh served as a state officer, and his passion for antiques became stronger. Antiques at that time were being flogged off wholesale on mats on the pavement of Hang Buom Street in Hanoi.
He talks excitedly of the day he spied a set of three statues of Chinese generals or Tuong tam thanh. It was the day he changed his cash under the government-ordered currency shift in the 1980s. On the way home, pockets lined with new money, he forked out a third of his savings to own the tam thanh statues.
He later realised that the statues had previously belonged to a renowned collector, whom Chinh had once visited some years before. He recalled the extensive collection of beautiful antiques, which had also included the tam thanh statues.
“At the time, I watched the same seller from a distance, as they bought out more objects from the collection. I vowed that someday, I would have the money to make it all mine,” he recalled.
According to Chinh, in order to become a real collector, you must have more sense than money. Knowledge and companions that share the hobby, he says, are the most important tools you can have, although he readily admits that a bit of luck doesn’t go far astray. The story of the tam thanh statues is an example of how luck contributes to a collection.
“You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have knowledge, you will most likely be tricked into buying worthless items, and you will never have the ability to study and explore the beauty of these things. Of course, if you know your antiques but are as poor as the church mouse, then you are equally out of luck,” Chinh explained, adding that passion for collecting will overcome either problem. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Chinh said each antique has its own character. Any valuable antique is one that has a beautiful and elegant look, although beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To experienced collectors, a piece must meet the criteria: nhat dang, nhi da, tam lanh, tu co. If one wants to make the right choice purchasing an antique, he must be a fine judge of the pieces’ “figure, skin, condition and antique-ness”.
Chinh scours provinces the length and breadth of the country. He says Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Hai Duong and Nam Dinh are the best hunting grounds for antiques. These areas are particularly rich in buried treasures troves of antiques. However, he said, Hanoi is still a focal point for antiques handed down from one generation to the next.
One pearl of wisdom he generously offered, was actively befriending people in the antique collecting community. These people, he revealed, have a wealth of experience in the art of distinguishing real antiques from fake.
“Just being around these items, absorbing their distinctive characteristics, recording your own information and talking with experienced experts, you will learn far more than by reading about it in books,” he said knowingly.
Now retired from his position as a high-school teacher, Chinh can usually be seen delicately caring for his antiques, and will talk the ears off anyone who seeks to tap his rich experience.
Once upon a time, he would natter for free to appease his ardour for antiques. Now, he is so celebrated in the antique collecting community that he has become a consultant to the new generation.
(Source: Time-out)
