Chinese Antique Architectural Fragments

China is a very large country with one of the most ancient civilizations on the face of the earth. It has had a history of building that is thousands of years old. Over the past 30 years, China has changed dramatically, and major cities have been completely renovated with new buildings being created where prior buildings had stood often for hundreds of years. In other words, China has become preoccupied with taking its rightful seat among the great powers of the world, and has done what it believed necessary to design and build an infrastructure to support that position.

The political system in China has facilitated the great make-over of the cities. Once the state makes up its mind, there really are no second thoughts or differing opinions. The practical application of this might be expressed as "down with the old and up with the new." Efforts to protect and maintain old architecture have not succeeded except in relatively few cases.

Therefore a building that might be 3-400 years old can be destroyed overnight. Usually there is some advance warning. Occupants have to be resettled, and plans made. So, certain opportunities present themselves. People get wind of an impending demolition and manage to strip many houses of "built-in" decorative items. Windows, doors, and carved ornamentation are removed and resold into the antiques market. Many of these items need repair as they may not have always been maintained in a scrupulous manner. Others are just fine.

Many of these architectural fragments are simply beautiful as independent sculpture. Windows and doors are frequently beautifully carved - often in highly symbolic images- and clearly worth whatever restoration is required. Others are so far destroyed that only fragments can be salvaged. Now these elements take on a new life of their own. Removed from their original setting, they offer glimpses of the magnificent skill set that carpenters have used throughout the ages.

These fragments are used in multiple ways. People will often use a window as they would a fine painting. Carefully hung on a wall, it becomes high art in and of itself. Doors can function in the same way. Doors, however, are sometimes made into movable screens. Hinged together, the doors make a very substantial - yet portable- room divider. Rescued carvings often are of personages or other highly symbolic objects that convey a sense of "blessing" when hung on a wall. In a certain sense, therefore, China's old houses do not die completely, but are given rebirth in differing forms, enabling us to appreciate the skills of their creators, and providing another of those wonderful physical connections the living have with the dead.

Even though these architectural fragments are Chinese, they are appreciated the world over. Serious collectors and museums have them on display, quality antique shops have them for sale, and there is serious competition for the various remnants at auction houses in the Western world as well as the Eastern. As China's wealth increases, more and more serious collectors are Chinese. Indeed many of the finest examples of Chinese architectural fragments are being bought in the West, and shipped back to be with their new owners in China