Are you the lucky one?

Recently my wife passed me a newspaper cutting. An article which read something like this: A bowl bought for 3 US dollars was auctioned for more than 2 million dollars in a major auction house in US. Read for yourself:

A rare find in the US

You may be wondering why somebody somewhere (in this case the US) can be so lucky. Actually, there are many good and valuable things lying around somewhere in this world. You need to have a pair of sharp eyes like the eagles', the eyes that can distinguish good from bad and gem from trash. You also need to possess wide and deep knowledge that set you apart from the ordinary folks.

Well, that bowl is no ordinary bowl. It is a piece of history (about 1000 years old), it is rare and most of all it is beautiful and magnificent. A bowl made during the period of Song Dynasty in very ancient China. It is known as the 'Ding Ware', one of 5 famous kilns from the Song Dynasty. As mentioned in the article, there is one such bowl kept in a British museum. How fortunate for the one who was able to buy an piece of art fit for any museum at a tag sale in the US (probably like the flea market here in Singapore, that's why the cost is only 3 US dollars). Why it ended in a tag sale is anybody's guess. I suppose the previous owner did not know its value (historical or monetary) and got rid of it to clear the garbage in his house. The bowl could have been left behind by his forefathers who could have brought it out of China (who knows by what means) during those turmoil times during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. If I am not wrong there are still a lot of such good treasures outside China, probably in Europe and the US. Don't forget, the foreign soldiers raided the Imperial Palace during those turmoil times and fled with plenty of invaluable treasures. These treasures would than end up everywhere, probably on display in their houses. Morale of the story is: If you don't educate your children regarding these treasures, they will treat them like garbage and eventually squander everything and anything that you have left behind. History will repeat itself. That is sad. There was another story reported in the press that a UK family auctioned a vase for 50 million pounds. The vase had been on display in their living room for many years until someone asked the family to have it evaluated. Eventually they learned that the vase was a very valuable antique so the family had it auctioned off. Could you imagine this windfall.

If you want to know about the famous kilns that produced the magnificent bowls and plates during the Song Dynasty, just click on this video. Let me remind you, every single piece if you find it, will be a treasure as these things are very rare indeed),  Some of the Song Artifacts are really elegant and magnificent. I do not even know  how to describe their beauty. My apology. The video is in Mandarin.

 

Video on Song Ware