Category: collecting

You want minimalism? Look elsewhere. I love my stuff. This category includes posts about bills and coins, books (including books in languages I can’t read), rocks and minerals, small little bowls, embroidered patches, and animal figurines. Plus whatever else catches my eye.

Japanese green glaze dragon

Item description / significance
This is an abstract ceramic dragon with dark green glaze. The dragon is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. It was the zodiac animal of the year 2024.

Bought where
on Xianyu (Chinese second-hand marketplace app)

Age and origin
Unknown age. Likely Japanese. The seller provided no information, but many of the seller’s other items are from Japan. Also, two similar dragons on Xianyu (one unglazed dark brown and one celadon) are listed as being from Japan. There’s a lot of cool stuff from Japan on Xianyu (including bears like this one).

What I like about it

The color. I like saturated colors, so this deep green is appealing. It’s the same deep green as some Chinese shiwan ceramics, like this rectangular pillow. Green is the color theme in my living room (at least in theory).

The style. Normally I like very realistic looking animals, and this one is not. But there’s something about the minimalist geometry here that I find appealing. Maybe it’s the semicircular snake bends in his body that contrast with the regular square scales.

See below for photos from the seller.

Continue reading Japanese green glaze dragon

Double dragon Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting two dragons chasing a pearl.

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Beijing)

Age and origin
Painted in 2000, according to the inscription, probably Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
What attracted me is that the quality of the painting (the level of detail) is high. Also, it’s dragons!

See below for information on the inscription and photos of this sphere, including photos from the seller.

Continue reading Double dragon Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Longquan celadon swan

Item description / significance
I saw swans like this for sale on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app, then I saw one in person in when my colleagues and I went to Xixi Wetlands to have tea. But I decided I wanted to buy one in Longquan itself if possible. I succeeded!

Bought where
in a shop in Longquan, where they make this kind of porcelain stuff

Age and origin
new, Chinese

What I like about it

It’s a bird. I think I’m generally less interested in water animals than I am in land and sky animals, but water birds can go wherever they want. I like anything with wings.

The color and texture. I find celadon porcelain soothing: it’s smooth and detailed at the same time. I picked the greener of the two color options in the shop.

See below for product photos of similar swans for comparison.

Continue reading Longquan celadon swan

Japanese wooden bear

I bought this wooden bear carving while shopping for celadon in Longquan, Zhejiang Province on a road trip with my husband and my parents.

I’d seen a lot of these wooden bears on Xianyu, the Craigslist/Carousell app of China, and wanted one because I collect animal figurines. I liked this particular bear carving because unlike some of them, it isn’t too scratched, and unlike a lot of them, it isn’t eating a fish. (I prefer animal figurines that are just the animal, not multiple animals, and not the animal standing on something or engaging in an action.)

I had a suspicion that “vintage Japanese” might have been added to the descriptions of the wooden bears for sale on Xianyu for the sake of search engine optimization rather than to actually communicate their origin, because I’ve definitely seen some other things mislabeled. But now that I’ve done a Google search, I’m pretty sure these are actually Japanese.

History of kibori kuma

The internet informs me that farmers in Hokkaido (the northernmost island of Japan) started making them in the 1920s based on Swiss folk art wood carvings. The carvings became a famous type of souvenir. I have no idea how old mine is. Possibly not very. And of course it’s possible some place in China started making them too. But this kind of wooden bear folk art is firmly associated with Japan, specifically Hokkaido.

» Wikipedia article about kibori kuma (Japanese wooden bears)

» article about the wooden bears museum in Yakumo, Hokkaido

» website of the wooden bears museum in Yakumo, Hokkaido

 

Longquan celadon plum blossom bowl

Item description / significance
This is a blueish Longquan celadon rice bowl with a flowering tree pattern on both sides.

Bought where
at the gift shop in the sword factory in Longquan during the road trip I went on with my husband and my parents

Age and origin
new, Chinese, from Lonquan, Zhejiang Province

What I like about it

The pattern. I grew up with a blue-and-white porcelain bedside table lamp that had this kind of pattern. It is variously known as meihua, hawthorn, prunus mume, or plum blossom.

The shape. I collect small little bowls. I like some shape profiles better than others; I tend not to like rims that flare out like a bell. This is a good shape!

The color and texture. I find celadon porcelain soothing. It’s smooth and yet also detailed.

Bills and coins from Albania

Albania is not part of the EU or the eurozone, but at least some restaurants, shops, and museums accept payment in euros. (Neighboring countries Kosovo and Montenegro unilaterally adopted the euro as the de facto national currency in 2002… Europe is complicated!)

According to Wikipedia, the Albanian currency lek (plural leke) is named after Alexander the Great, and Albania operated on a gold standard until 1939.

The value of the lek is not pegged, but at the moment, 100 leke is worth about 1 US dollar or 1 euro, so the tourist shopping math is trivial, converting from one of those currencies.

More about my experience with Albanian bills and coins below.

Oh, and here are the other two souvenirs I brought back (apart from three books).

embroidered Albanian flag patch
flag pin

Continue reading Bills and coins from Albania

Shopping for Books in Albania

Wherever I go, I look at the books. Doesn’t matter if I can read them, although books in English have spread across the globe just like English itself has. I’m always interested to see what books look like, whether they are originals in the local language, world classics translated into the local language, or books in English imported from overseas.

See below for photos of two very different types of book shopping experience.

Continue reading Shopping for Books in Albania

Balinese wood dragon #2

Item description / significance
This is a winged dragon carved from wood, made in Indonesia. Her name is Karen. She has some damage; a couple of teeth, one of her long whiskers, and some of her short whiskers are broken, but her wings and body are intact.

Bought where
in Singapore on Carousell, a second-hand marketplace app

Age and origin
age unknown, made in Bali, Indonesia

What I like about it
It’s a dragon! With wings! The detail is good.

Other notes
I already had a dragon like this. I bought this one to give to my brother. He and Karen are still on opposite sides of the planet, though. =\

See below for a few photos.

Continue reading Balinese wood dragon #2

Balinese wood dragon #1

Item description / significance
This is a winged dragon carved from wood, made in Indonesia. Size: 32cm (H) x 11cm (W) x 25cm (D). No damage. Seems to be dancing! His name is Dave, thus he is Dave the dancing Indonesian dragon (because I like cheesy alliteration).

Bought where
in Singapore on Carousell, a second-hand marketplace app
Original listing is still online!

Age and origin
age unknown, made in Bali, Indonesia

What I like about it
It’s a dragon! With wings! The detail is good.

Other notes
I think the first time I saw one of these was in Chinatown in Singapore, in a shop that had a lot of wood carvings from Indonesia. They had several sizes (all way too expensive).

The price tag on the on on the right says SG$788. These are maybe 22 inches (50 cm) tall. I like it that they are a mirror-image pair!
I think these were priced at like SG$115. They are only maybe 7 inches (20 cm) tall.

I searched on Carousell and found one. It’s still there; the seller never responded.

I kept looking. As soon as another Indonesian dragon turned up, I messaged the seller offering to pay the asking price, and arranged to pick it up the same day. I never bought anything so fast! I took the MRT one stop from my house and met the seller, handed over the cash, and turned around and got back on the train. Never even went out of the station gantry. It was surreal. I am super pleased!

See below for photos of Dave.

Continue reading Balinese wood dragon #1

Qingming Festival Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting an adaptation of the Song dynasty handscroll painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival.”

Bought where
in Singapore, at Peter’s house of bric-a-brac

Age and origin
Painted in 1992, according to the inscription, probably in Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
I bought it mainly because I recognized the famous source painting. I’d stared at an animated version of it on display at, I think, Tokyo Haneda Airport when I got re-routed through there in 2017. The level of detail is impressive.

See below for information on the inscription, background on the original handscroll painting, and more photos of this ball.

Continue reading Qingming Festival Chinese inside-painted glass ball