Collecting

25 Feb 2013

The market for Chinese antique export silver is having a dramatic reversal of fortune. Export silver, as the name suggests, originally catered to a Western audience, and included royalty and...

Collecting old notes and coins

4 Feb 2013

"Thirty-eight hundred in the room. Four thousand on the net, 5,000, 6,000! Bid, bid, bid!" the auctioneer calls out.

Swathed in tradition

28 Jan 2013

Vera Waters knows a thing or two about cheongsams. The vibrant 77-year-old, who still keeps an astonishingly full schedule running her skincare business, owns more than 360 tailor-made cheongsams...

Advice for new collectors of art

14 Jan 2013

Adriana Alvarez-Nichol, from Mexico, is the first art dealer in Hong Kong dedicated to Latin American art. She started the Puerta Roja gallery and is a board member of the the Hong Kong Art...

Old and rare children's books

7 Jan 2013

Lorence Johnston wants me to smell an old book. He tilts a hefty brown tome at least 30cm long with the binding facing away and gently flips the pages towards me. I expect a mustiness but I get a...

Opinion

Wang Xiangwei

Super ministries may not be the right answer for mainland China

Alex Lo

Church developers remain unbowed by government rules

George Chen

A house is not a home until it becomes affordable

Snuff bottles sure to attract attention

Bonhams is the leading international auction house for Chinese snuff bottles and another stunning selection will be sold this week.

Figures of fun

PEZ is famous for having a distinctive cartoon head on each of its sweet dispensers. For this week's top 10, we ask our junior reporters whose head they would put on their dispensers, if they were...

Sweet little collectibles

Sweets used to be wrapped in paper and foil. Then one day PEZ came along and changed everything.

The Austrian brand is famous for its sweet dispensers with their distinctive caps...

Spink set to stamp its name on China

Wealthy Chinese are expanding their investment horizons and looking beyond property and shares to stamps, coins, and rare banknotes, says Olivier Stocker.

Rule change would stop firms hoarding land

Mainland property developers should start construction on idle sites within three months of receiving a government order, according to the latest amendments to draft rules aimed at curbing land...

Greet expectations

It's the last shopping day before Christmas, and the clock is ticking. Luckily for the complacent, forgetful and downright slothful among us, we still have time to send a Christmas card.