My Top 3 collections

Hi there! I will introduce you James’ Top3 favorite antique collections, which had utterly different history and story behind, and most importantly, he discovered them from 3 different places.

1. Han Dynasty Bronze Mirror with Four Nipples and Four Serpents

This Mirror from Han Dynasty was among James’ most valuable, ancient, and aesthetic collections. It was acquired in August 2024, at Beijing. That time, I was in a trip to visit a former member of the Wu-Ming Art Society, who lives near by a minor antique market in Song Zhuang. After the visit, I went to that market and found a shop which specializes mirror sells, and thereby bought this mirror. The four serpents on the mirror were seen by Han people as a simplified substitution of dragon, since usage of dragon symbols was exclusive for the royal family.

At the mirror’s center, four protruding knobs (“nipples”) are arranged symmetrically, serving both as decoration and functional points for attaching cords. Encircling them are four stylized serpents (hui), motifs associated with protection, cosmic order, and auspicious power in Han cosmology.

(I usually use it as a bookmark, it has a perfect flat shape, doesn’t it?)

2. Qing Tibetan bracelet

I acquired this Tibetan bracelet in a trip to Tibet (of course). It was made of a type of shell named Musaragalva in Tibetan Buddhism and was perceived as having the effect of calming minds. The sanskrits(sacred langauge of Buddhism) engraved on the balls with colorful mineral pigments was the sacred mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, a central Buddhist invocation symbolizing compassion and spiritual purification.

I bought this from a Tibitan nomad on the road from Lhasa to Nagqu. Throughout the deal, we were communicating with a translator, and this adds some dramatic elements for this deal.

3. Han arrowhead

This rusted Han dynasty arrowhead was still sharp and fatal as of 15 hundred years ago. Being one of my most inexpensive yet meaningful collections, the arrowhead was mine since 2022 when I interest in artifacts sparked for the first time. No longer a deadly weapon on my hand, sometimes I still use this arrowhead to cut paper.