Ye Chengyao: Collection of classical furniture such as raising children

On the slope of Tamsui Bay, an orange convertible Mini Cooper appeared in the field of vision. When it approached, a Huafa of the person in the driver's seat behind the windshield was looming. In the high-end apartment on the mountainside, the neighbor called him Dr. Ye. This is Ye Chengyao's first social cognition identity, and what really made him famous for Xiangjiang is his antique furniture collection.

In September 2003, Christie's in New York held a large-scale Ming furniture auction. All 68 pieces were from Ye Chengyao's collection. The last 40 pieces were auctioned, and the total auction volume was about 22.62 million Hong Kong dollars. Among them, the three pieces of furniture with the highest turnover were sold for more than 2 million Hong Kong dollars, including the three-screen single-plate dragon-shaped arhat bed of Minghuanghuali, the Minghuanghuali Lingzhi pattern hanger and the Minghuanghuali two-corner piano table. However, four years later, when he mentioned this auction, Ye Chengyao’s heart raised an infinite regret.

Enter "mind for the best"

Ye Chengyao was born in Fujian. His name was written by a pair of couplets written by his ancestors Ye Guangda. "Guangming Zhengda is a family law." Grandpa was a group of immigrants who came to Hong Kong at the beginning of the last century and later became an honest businessman. I once owned a house on almost all the streets of Nathan Road in Kowloon, but my family’s family gradually fell. When Ye Chengyao was born in the late 1950s, his first son was born, and he was catching up with the family. Each person only got tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. . Ye Chengyao later advanced to the social status through excellent education and hard work. When he was in the third year at the University of Hong Kong, he was admitted to the University of London School of Medicine. After practicing medicine in London and the United States for several years, he went to Harvard to read a medical doctor.

In 1965, 32-year-old Ye Chengyao returned to Hong Kong to open a private clinic. A few years later, with free money in hand, he followed the two uncles to play with the collection. His five uncles collected ancient jade, and the seven uncles collected porcelain. When the five uncles passed away in 1971, they passed the collection of ancient jade and the book "Jade Mountain House" to him. Soon after, Ye Chengyao became "sensitive." Member.

“Sensing for the Best” is a cultural relics collector organization in Hong Kong. It is a civil society founded in 1960. It is composed entirely of male business or other industry elites. The criteria for absorbing members are known for their high entry threshold and few members. According to Ye Chengyao, there are more than 40 members, the youngest is in their 30s, and the oldest should be 93-year-old industrialist Li Rongsen. His collection ranges from calligraphy and painting to ancient jade and bronze. Important members include Fan Jia from Shanghai to do the kettle business; Deng Zhongan, a famous dermatologist who mainly collects snuff bottles, and Dr. Luo Guixiang, the late doctor, started his business with Vitasoy, and when Sotheby’s landed in Hong Kong in the 1970s, Luo is already an important buyer. There is a private clubhouse, a regular lunch every month, exchange of experiences, appreciation of cultural relics, and often exhibits in the world, and the level of the exhibition is highly valued by the industry. "A few years ago, the Palace Museum celebrated its 75th anniversary. We celebrated the 40th anniversary, and we have a large-scale exhibition. We have printed more than 50 books and books." Ye Chengyao said that he has served as two "minors". Chairman of the House, the earliest Chairman Hu Huichun (Ren Mu) is a collector of porcelain. He has a very broad knowledge of ceramics. Many of his collections were brought when he moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Shanghai was once the main collection of Chinese art. After the establishment of the famous Chinese collectors Wu Hufan and Qian Jingtang, they were only able to sell the collections through Hong Kong acquaintances. The Hong Kong region has created an important distribution center for the Chinese art collection community. The collections from Shanghai, Hu Renmu and Qiu Yu, have almost influenced the trend of Hong Kong art collections for nearly 40 years. “Mr. Hu Renmu is a banker. He often buys antiques around the world with gold bars. The selection and protection are very particular. The plane is shipped back.” Ye Chengyao said, “He knows the porcelain quite thoroughly. At that time, he felt that Shanghai people were more than us. People have culture.” The taste of Shanghai collectors has affected the Hong Kong collection market like the rainy rain. Since 1973, Sotheby’s auction house has often held porcelain auctions and expanded the range of antiques available for purchase. Different from month to month, Ye Chengyao’s earliest collections also began with porcelain.

In the 1970s, members of the “Mingzhi Jingshe” were the most active Chinese antique collectors. The number of collectors in Hong Kong has always been many, and there are also many foreigners involved. The price of porcelain collections remains high. At this time, although Ye Chengyao is already a famous doctor in dermatology, but the financial resources are still far less than the bankers or collectors supported by the family consortium, so the focus of the collection is on the paintings that were relatively cheap at the time. In 2005, Beijing Guardian Auction set up a special session for Ye Chengyao's 92 ancient and modern paintings and calligraphy. One of the three-meter-long Huang Binhong's "Mountains and Rivers" was purchased in 1980 and finally refreshed with RMB 6.38 million. Huang Binhong's personal painting and calligraphy works have the highest record.

In 1985, Ye Chengyao saw Wang Shizhen’s "Ming-style Furniture Treasures" issued by Hong Kong Sanlian Bookstore, and immediately became interested in such collections, and quickly got out of nothing - most of his collections were purchased in the latter two In the year, he became the collector with the most Ming furniture in the world. Even after the auction in New York, he still had more than 100 pieces in his hand.

Specialized furniture collection

From the living room, overlooking the gleaming Repulse Bay, the curtains block the light reflected from the bay. In the living room, there is a court in the Qianlong period, with the double dragons holding the golden rosewood long table, the complicated carvings with the influence of the Rococo style, a pair of Ming Dynasty huanghuali shrinking the rose chair, the ebony frame is his It was bought by Philippe De Backer. Last year, it just participated in the Ming Dynasty Furniture Collection Exhibition held by the Belgian collectors at the Palace Museum. A seven-handed table at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, consisting of seven It consists of triangular tables of different sizes and can be placed in any combination. This is the latest collection of Ye Chengyao. Most of the other collections are stored in a warehouse that is kept in a constant temperature and humidity.

When Mr. Wang Shizhen collected Ming furniture, there was a coincidence caused by the times. In the 60 years or so, Ming Dynasty furniture was concentrated in a place called Luban Pavilion in Beijing. The best furniture was unpacked and sold. He looked at the urgency and went every day to buy a lot of furniture at the price of buying wood. Ye Chengyao’s Ming furniture collection also caught up with the coincidence that capitalism created for him: “I was catching up with the golden period of Ming furniture collection when I bought furniture.” Ye Chengyao said, “In the entire 1980s and early 1990s. In Hong Kong, buyers in the world collect real products in order to obtain profits. The Ming-style furniture on the market is diverse and reasonable. Hong Kong is also the global trading center of Huanghuali Furniture. When I have not yet flown to the world, Take the lead in buying it.” Most of Ye Chengyao's collections were purchased from Ms. Wu Jiaen, who is known as the “Queen of Huanghuali” in Hong Kong. Wu Jiaen is an expert in Ming-style furniture trading. Her furniture store in Central, Grace Wu Bruce, is a must-see for furniture museum experts and collectors who came to Hong Kong. Later, Wang Shizhen’s Chinese name “Jiamutang”, last year’s Philip De Bague’s exhibition in the Forbidden City was also arranged by Wu Jiaen.

Another way to collect is to benefit from Ye Chengyao's travels around the world. A piece of rosewood carved table that he liked was purchased from New Mexico, USA. “The original owner lived in China in the 1930s. After his death, his family took out a few pieces of furniture he brought back and auctioned it locally. The price was not high. I think the small table was made very well. Later, I learned that this table is a pair and the other is in the Forbidden City. Another time, Ye Chengyao contacted the exhibition in the United States and went to Seattle. The female director of the Seattle Museum just took over from Yale University. "Before I went, just had a gentleman to contact to make a small cultural relic exhibition. It was about the stationery of the study room. The collector promised. If the exhibition was made, I would give a Ming style bench to the museum for collection. Later, the museum decided not to do the exhibition, make porcelain, and return the stool to him. The collector was very angry, I bought the bench from him and returned to Hong Kong. The female curator later married Bill Gates's father, you see, she doesn't want our old wood, she wants Bill Gates's father."

One year, Ye Chengyao heard that a rare piano table arrived in Hong Kong, but he never saw the real thing. He did not know who was bought. After a few years, he went to London and saw the piano in an antique shop. The table was bought immediately. "The boss said that I can buy things very fast. Of course I know where it came from. Unfortunately, it was taken away in New York." When it came to the auction, Ye Chengyao’s eyes dimmed. Fortunately, I heard that I was bought by a Hong Kong collector." Ye Chengyao said that after he entered the old age, he had no sense of security and wanted to save more money to support the elderly. Perhaps more than the influence of his chairman, Hu Renmu, when he joined the “sensitive home”, a few years before his death, Mr. Hu donated many collections to the government’s museum, often hanging a sentence in the Tao Te Ching. "There is a lot of love, and more Tibetans will die." But Ye Chengyao found that he was not so free and easy, and sometimes missed those furniture as he missed his old friends.

Ye Chengyao will still buy favorite collections from the auction, such as the long table in the palace, which was taken from New York. "There was no auction before, a thing of 200,000 yuan, it is normal to rise tens of thousands in a few months, but now there is an auction, you don't know what the outcome will be. Maybe you can get 1 million yuan if You like this thing, can you buy it?" At the beginning, he used to concentrate on the collection of Minghuanghuali furniture, because he felt "simple and elegant, beautiful color", as for some Qing furniture that the Ming furniture collectors are not interested in, he Then find the fun of the collection from the finest pieces. "One of the starting points of my collection is as full as possible. The entire Ming Dynasty series of tables, chairs and bed stools are all collected, and it is considered to be a real collector." Ye Chengyao said, "I went to Europe earlier to see an old gentleman. The collection is very good, but there is no bed. He said that the family is not big enough, the wife is not allowed to buy a bed. I feel funny, there is no place to put it, can be placed in the warehouse. Wang Shizhen’s home is full of furniture, the couple Sleeping in a Ming cabinet, that is a big collector."

Ye Chengyao feels that doing exhibitions is better than "storing" in the warehouse, because it allows more people to see the essence of Chinese culture. His first furniture exhibition was held at the University of Hong Kong. Later, he participated in the group exhibition “Minzhi Jingshe”. His furniture has been to the United States and Europe. In November this year, he will be a furniture exhibition at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Another kind of "custody" is lending, because he is familiar with Mrs. Tung Chee-hwa’s younger brother, who once loaned furniture to the special capital. There are still more than 50 pieces of furniture in the VIP room of the Macau East Asian Games.

On weekdays, Ye Chengyao read newspapers and periodicals in English. In his collections, his research on antique furniture was written in English. He hopes to meet people who understand antique furniture for translation. He mentioned that when Ming furniture is used by many people as a practical art in China, foreigners have regarded it as the art of disappearance. He likes the words that Wu Guanzhong once said when he visited the museum in the West: "It is not inappropriate to put a famous teacher's chair here." "I have a period of time to write the history of Ming furniture, and I have worked hard for 3 years. I think it’s better to find someone to write.” Ye Chengyao said that he found the archaeological experts of the Chinese Buddhist Academy and the people who worked in the Palace Museum to write a book on early furniture research, from Shangzhou to the Yuan Dynasty, and later to find the Zhu family to write the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The book of furniture, but Mr. Zhu passed away, the book was not finished, "I hope that when I will do the exhibition in November this year, my catalogue can come out with this book."

For more information, please stay tuned to http:// Xianghe Furniture City official website