Hope everyone had a wonderful summer! It's definitely been a while since my last blog... and if you haven't read it yet, it was an in-depth examination of the Chinese Imperial Yangcai 'Crane and Deer' Vase from the Qianlong Period (1736-1795) that Sotheby's found in an old green shoebox. This 'shoebox vase' sold for an incredible €16 million! My summer ended up being fairly busy with various consulting projects and appraisal work. However, I did manage to visit Boston for a

Happy belated Chinese New Year! January 28, 2017 marks the beginning of the rooster year and the end of the monkey year (my Chinese zodiac sign). I'm definitely no Chinese zodiac master, and through my 'scientific' online searches, I realized there are probably dozens of conflicting characteristics for people born under this sign (take 2017 and keep subtracting multiples of 12 to see if you are born in the year of the rooster, i.e. 2005, 1993, 1981, etc). People born in the y

Happy New Year and wishing everyone a very joyful and healthy 2017. I recently returned from my two week vacation to England and Paris. In addition to the museums visits I mentioned in my last posting, I managed to drop by two more before going home. The first is the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath, England. It may seem quite a distance from London, but it is a pleasant 1.5 hour train ride from Paddington Station. The train was fairly fast and there is a small dining cart in