“Unless you dig directly from the tomb, even auction houses find it difficult,” Judy said. It was once believed that carved animal heads only started turning (instead of looking straight ahead) in the Ming Dynasty. Later, excavations in China proved otherwise.
New technologies, like carbon dating, make no guarantees either as some antiques are made of old clay and new paint. Plus, craftsmen were fond of replicating the work of the previous dynasty. Sometimes, when collectors are on to details the Lohs aren’t, they even make a killing.
“We sold a bowl with ‘chicken fat yellow’ glaze, which was only used by imperial families in the olden days. The man bought the bowl for S$600. A few months later, he smiled and came back to tell us he had sold it for over S$300,000.”
THE END OF AN ERA
After 20 years of closure, Ying Kee Hong is opening for the last time. The Lohs had recently sold the shophouse along Lorong 12 in Geylang, and Yinshan had consolidated the contents of her childhood home in a final estate sale (this Sunday marks the last day of in-person viewings).
She had taken unpaid leave to do just that. In the last two months, she manually opened the crates, removed them piece by piece and polished 70-year-old dust off them. She designed a website and engaged an external vendor to help sort them.
“This whole experience has made me feel even more connected to the antiques. I feel like a treasure hunter inside my own home. I’ve lived here, but so many things I haven’t seen!”
This process also unearthed relics of her childhood, like a computer mouse controlled by a joystick; and documents from her grandfather’s journey, like custom declaration forms from as early as 1962.