Jacqueline's adventure

"Jack, Jack ..." Jacqueline Simcox suddenly realized that the other party was looking for herself and shouted a nonstandard English name. After a heated conversation, Jacqueline got on the roaring motorcycle. She was nervous and excited. She is not sure where strangers will take her.

For a whole week, Kathmandu, Nepal is still full of mystery and temptation for this well-educated British lady. In the eyes of local people, Jacqueline's appearance is more striking. In the early 1980s, there were few foreigners here, especially foreign women who came here alone.

Jacqueline is Spink &; Son) Director of Oriental Art Department. One day a few months ago, a young man from the United States approached Jacqueline's colleague and offered to sell a piece of China silk, but his colleague was not interested. This happened to Jacqueline passing by. She found it very interesting, because she had never seen such an item in the company, so she bought this silk fabric. "I insisted on buying it for the company, because I remember there was an identical one in the Victoria Albert Museum in England." Jacqueline said to me: "I have the impression that it should be something from the late Ming Dynasty. It is made of silk, about the size of an ordinary tablecloth. Later, it was a pair. "

In the process of consulting materials and comparing with museum collections, Jacqueline became more and more interesting. She learned from the seller that it was brought back from Nepal. Jacqueline said: "Many young people will go to Nepal to climb mountains, and usually stop at a small place near Kathmandu first. Many tourists are concentrated here. That young American was bought under such circumstances. "

Jacqueline knew the situation and went straight to Kathmandu, and there was an opening scene. When I first arrived in Kathmandu, the hotel staff were very curious and asked her, what do you do? Why did you come to Nepal? She dared not tell the truth, only that she had come to find someone to make carpets. However, Jacqueline always carries pictures of silk with her. When she meets a small shop selling handicrafts or antiques, she will go in and ask if there is such a thing. She found that every family showed her the same batch of things. Businessmen deliver goods privately. "At that time, they offered a sky-high price, and everything was $6.5438+10,000. Later, I found that what I saw on the first day must be expensive. If I stay a few more days, when many people say no after reading it, I can buy it at a very cheap price, usually one or two thousand yuan. These businessmen surrendered as soon as they saw the cash. " Jacqueline said with a smile.

Jacqueline University majored in western art, and she had hoped to work in related fields in the future. After graduation, she has two choices: continue to study for a doctorate, or learn some skills and find a job. She chose the latter. 197 1 year, she came to London to study typing and wrote to various art companies to find a job. Seven or eight months later, a company named Spink got the answer.

Spink Company, founded in 1666, is the earliest art company in the world. At first, it mainly engaged in gold coins and pawn business. 1850, Oriental Art Department was established, which was once the largest antique retail company in the world. However, the position advertised at that time was a secretary. Jacqueline said that Britain was very conservative at that time, and women could only be secretaries. After joining the company, the boss said that you can choose a department to be a secretary. I am very lucky. At that time, the company's business was divided into several categories: British furniture, which was the most important department, followed by the coin department, and finally the China art department. Jacqueline studied western art and lived in England. She handles furniture and coins every day. In her opinion, these are all too life-oriented, and China's art makes her feel mysterious. She said: "If my daily typing is about China, I can learn something about the culture and history of this country." In this way, Jacqueline worked diligently as a secretary for three years. Before her boss retired, she was promoted to a junior expert in the department, and she began to get close contact with China's artworks.

Spink's sales model is that the business personnel of various departments directly buy antiques and then retail them out.

Jacqueline's trip to Nepal gave her an idea. Compared with other things, such as ceramics, furniture and lacquerware, the price of silk products has not yet risen. We can build the network step by step, and maybe it will become an independent category. Nepalese businessmen also know that Jacqueline is a big customer, because she buys a lot of things, so there are corresponding people to find goods for her, then take pictures and send them to Britain regularly. Jacqueline told me: "There were really many good things at that time, most of which were in the late Ming Dynasty. Silk fabrics from the late Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty can be found at the earliest. "

Nepal is located in the southern foothills of the Himalayas and borders China in the north. Now it only takes about 5 hours by car to enter Kathmandu from Zhangmu, Tibet. China and Nepal have a history of communication for thousands of years. Faxian, a monk in Jin Dynasty, and Xuanzang, a monk in Tang Dynasty, have both been to Lumbini (located in southern Nepal), the birthplace of Sakyamuni. In the Tang Dynasty, Princess Chizhen of Nepal married Tubo Zambizong Zambopo; In the Yuan Dynasty, Anika, a famous Nepalese architect, came to China to supervise the construction of Beijing Baita Temple. So it's easy to find China's works of art in Nepal. Jacqueline said that the supply at that time was mainly from Nepal and India.

However, these silks discovered by Jacqueline were not recognized. At that time, people subjectively thought that silk fabrics with a history of hundreds of years must be seriously damaged. Jacqueline found it almost brand new. She even found a roll of bright yellow cloth embroidered with dragons, which was completely unused. "So it was hard to convince them that these were real things at first." Jacqueline said, "What's more difficult is that almost all the experts in the museum deny it. I once bought a model of Yongle, which was embroidered. Most experts disagree. We took it to Oxford University for carbon 14 detection, which was consistent with its age. Even if there is such a scientific appraisal, experts don't believe it and say it is wrong. But they didn't go to Kathmandu to see these things in person. In that closed era, things outside the mainstream were difficult to be recognized. "

The field of Asian silk products in Spink was founded by Jacqueline. At that time, it was a blank, and there was almost no knowledge in this field. However, Spink is so famous in the western world that Jacqueline will be very popular in any museum she goes to. Open the warehouse and show it to her. Jacqueline also has many opportunities to learn and compare. When there are special patterns on silk fabrics, she will communicate with her colleagues in porcelain, jade, calligraphy and painting and listen to their opinions, so that she can make a good horizontal comparison of the items.

1989, at Jacqueline's suggestion, the company held the first silk art exhibition. Jacqueline told me: "There are two kinds of guests, one is museums, most of them are American museums, and the number in Britain is very small. Because British museums need detailed records and reports when purchasing a collection, they need multiple evidences to prove that there is no problem. The second type of guests are a few private collectors. "

Jacqueline and another textile expert from the Middle East and India * * wrote a catalogue, which included 224 major silk products in the world, of which more than 80 were from China. All the famous museums in the world received the catalogue, which had a great response, because there was no relatively professional silk book at that time, and this book became a very important reference tool for some time.

"Never before, the response of tourists is very good. By the end of the exhibition, almost everything was sold out. Most of them enter museums and private collectors, mainly in Europe and America. "

After that, Jacqueline got up and brought me the catalogue of that year. One of the tapestries 12 ~ 13 century embroidered with Buddha statues is the same as the one being displayed. There are five Buddha statues in different postures, from left to right: immortal Buddha, Baosheng Buddha, Pilu Channa Buddha, Amitabha Buddha and Bukong Achievement Buddha. There is an almond-shaped light wheel behind the Buddha statue, with a rolled leaf substrate and floral decoration as the edge. Every Buddha sits on a lotus pedestal.

Jacqueline told me that the one on display at 1989 was sold to the French Ji Mei Museum, and the one on display now was discovered after she left Spink. "When I found the second piece, I thought it was not only one or two pieces, but also there. So I sent the photos to some museums and private collectors. According to the feedback and the information I consulted, there are 8 such tapestries in the world. It should be a piece in history, and it was later cut into several pieces and sold. "

1993, Spink company was acquired by Christie's. 1996 Jacqueline resigned from public office and started her own company. She decided not to open a shop, and only attended some famous fairs every year, such as "TEFAF Maastricht" in the Netherlands, "Asian Art in London" in the UK and "International Antiques and Art Fair" in Hong Kong. During her 25 years in Spink, she has accumulated a lot of customer resources. Jacqueline said: "Now most silk fabrics in Europe and America are in the hands of private collectors. They are a very unique group, because textiles are relatively unconventional, and these things are not easy to preserve. Take it seriously and protect it when you collect it. However, the person who collects it must love it. These people are rich and low-key, and the chances of finally collecting them are not great. "

Jacqueline met a lady named Mactaggart when she held a silk exhibition in Spink. She likes women's dresses in ancient China, and the only requirement for each purchase is that they should not be less than 54 inches. Because she is tall, she should wear these clothes, not too short. In this way, buy buy became an important collector. Now, all of Ms. Mactaggart's collections have been donated to the Canadian Museum.

Antiques must be liked by people to have the motivation to operate, and Jacqueline is no exception. She also has her own collection outside of business. She likes group flowers and geometric silk in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. In her view, silk fabrics in Qing Dynasty were too secular and lacked tough lines. Her collection is not for sale, which is also some comfort in her heart for 40 years.

Appreciation of Jacqueline Gallery's Works

Remove the yellow silk cushion of Qingganlong.

It is 33 cm long and 50 cm wide.

Yellow silk cushion, wishful head shape, embroidered with tangled flowers. Embroidery in the Qing Dynasty was mostly court embroidery, which was mostly drawn by painters in Ruyige, a manufacturing office in the palace. After approval, it was sent to three weaving and embroidery workshops under the jurisdiction of Jiangnan Weaving, and the embroidery was still very neat and exquisite. In the heyday of Suzhou embroidery, there were many schools, famous artists competed in the show, and embroidery was widely used in daily life, which led to various embroidery stitches, more delicate embroidery workers and more ingenious embroidery thread color matching.

16th century six-product civil servants supplement

It is 36.83 cm high and 38. 1 cm wide.

The supplement of official uniforms in the Ming Dynasty also has a certain pattern according to the size of official ranks.

Civil servants: one painting crane, two painting golden pheasants, three painting peacocks, four painting geese, five painting egrets, six painting egrets, seven painting eight painting orioles and nine painting quails.

Military attache: draw lions with one product and two products, tigers and leopards with three products and four products, bears with five products, tigers with six products and seven products, rhinoceroses with eight products and seahorses with nine products.

19 bottom blue-green silk embroidered nightgown

Length 14 1 cm

The embroidered robe of turquoise silk is worn by ladies in the imperial court. The front, back, shoulders and skirt of the robe are decorated with big flowers and butterflies.

Green dried dragon hanging silk (tapestry)

Size: 195cm× 307cm

A pair of agile five-claw golden dragons, flying on both sides of the long words, are lined with dense dark blue wishful clouds embroidered with red, yellow and green silk threads. Silk reeling, also known as "silk carving", is the essence of China silk works of art, which is a kind of warp and weft pattern and adopts the weaving method of "drawing warp and breaking weft", while the general brocade weaving method is drawing warp and weft, that is, the weft runs through the whole width of the fabric. Silk can change color freely, so it is especially suitable for making calligraphy and painting works. Weavers who weave colored weft should have certain artistic attainments. The structure of silk reeling fabric follows the principles of "thin warp and thick weft", "white warp and colored weft" and "straight warp and curved weft", that is, the natural color warp is thin, the colored weft is thick, and the warp weft is reeled, and only the colored weft is displayed, but not the warp. Because the colored weft completely covers the upper part of the fabric, the shrinkage of the weft after weaving will not affect the effect of the picture pattern. Removal of dry Qinglong yellow silk throne seat cushion

Height 128.27 cm, width 1 16.84 cm.

The buttonwood is surrounded by various plants, including 9 peaches, 9 bats and 5 peony in bud.

Qingganlong

Bright yellow silk court robe embroidered with Yunlong pattern

The bright yellow ground is decorated with five-claw golden dragons: 9 golden dragons in front and back, 9 golden dragons in left and right shoulders and 9 golden dragons in bottom lapels, and 9 golden dragons in collar lapels and horseshoe sleeves 1 1. The whole body is decorated with auspicious patterns such as Yiyun and Babao, and the following picture shows the sea cliff pattern. This dragon robe has smooth lines, tight weaving, vivid patterns, exquisite embroidery composition, three-dimensional gold body and colorful embroidery lines.