The British antiques market is enjoying a golden period, with buyers from China looking to reclaim important heritage artifacts. The phenomenon has permeated both high-end and regional antique houses and some sellers have reported monthly sales figures reaching the level previously expected in a year.

Mark Dodgson, secretary general of the British Antique Dealers’ Association, told the Global Times that visitors from the Chinese mainland were targeting Chinese artworks, and specifically artworks not originally made for the export market.

"They are keen to buy ‘imperial’ items, from a number of dynasties. Chinese buyers are not, however, particularly interested in the many ceramic items that were exported from China to the West more than 200 years ago, despite these items being highly valued by Western collectors,” he explained.

Ivan Macquisten, the editor of the UK-based trade magazine Antiques Trade Gazette suggested that this trend first became apparent around 2005, after a landmark ￡2.6 million ($4.22 million) sale of a 14th century Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) porcelain double-gourd vase (pictured right) at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury in July 2005. “Christie’s sold another Yuan Dynasty vase for ￡14 million at the same time, but this was the first big sale outside London.

Although the sale was made to a dealer, it was thought to be on behalf of a Chinese collector,” he said.

Heated up

The ￡2.6 million set the record for any item sold outside London and was only beaten in May 2009, when the same auction house sold a 20.8 centimeter long imperial spinach-jade buffalo – The Pelham Water Buffalo (pictured above) – dating from the Qianlong period (1736-95), sitting on a gold stand from the same period, for ￡3.4 million. It sold to the same dealer, again for a private client. Since that second sale things have really heated up.

Macquisten explained that Chinese antiques, especially rhino horn libation cups, have been emerging all over the UK, but when it came to imperial white jades and porcelain – possibly the two most sought-after objects – the West Country area of the UK has seen the most activity. “This seems to be because collections held for decades in large country houses are now being released in reaction to the soaring prices,” he said.

Europeans started collecting Chinese items centuries ago and many of these can still be found in private collections. Porcelain is probably the best example of this, as it was sought-after and widely produced.

Europeans had always been fascinated by this precious material, which they did not know how to produce before the early 18th Century. “Porcelain was therefore regarded as a mysterious and highly desirable material. Italian painter Andrea Mantegna even depicted the Magi offering a Chinese porcelain cup to the Christ Child (Adoration of the Magi),” explained Iain Brunt, of the Salisbury Antique Center.

European collectors

In 1840, after the opening of China to the West, many antiques, which had never been disclosed before, became available to European collectors, like George Salting who later bequeathed most of his collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The British were particularly fond of these and started to purchase them in large quantities.

"Chinese collectors are aware of this phenomenon and have their own people on the ground here in the UK doing the footwork, trying to source these objects. It is one of the rare collecting categories where the major auction houses don’t offer all the best pieces, but often the very smallest auction houses can bring these true gems onto the market,” said Brunt.

Previous ties

"While I would anticipate more items emerging in the UK than other countries because of our previous ties to China, I also think that we are, to a degree, the advance guard and that other countries, such as France, who were also heavily involved in China, will see more such sales,” said Macquisten. “It will also be interesting to see what emerges from the US.”

Industry insiders appear to be in agreement that while the current UK boom will not last forever, the effects will continue to be felt for some time. “With a potential audience of one in five people on the planet, this must be as good as it gets. There certainly is no hint of an end to it yet,” said Macquisten.

"It should also be remembered that while the Chinese may be paying heavily now to recapture the gems of their cultural heritage, once imperial wares have returned to China, the law does not allow them to be sold outside the country again. Eventually, this means that the market will fall away, except for the absolute top end.”

According to Shanghai-based art dealer Weng Huide, most people purchase overseas Chinese antiques for investment and only a few of them will donate collections for public use.

"After noticing the prosperity of the antiques market and the profits in the future, a number of big companies have also entered the antiques trading market abroad to bring Chinese antiques back,” said Weng.

Weng believes that although many Chinese artists, (such as Tang Yun and Wu Guanzhong), have donated works to public institutions, the current crop of collectors are less interested in patriotic gestures.