XUANDE HALL MUSEUM 宣德园博物馆

序言

本人萌发文物收藏始于上世纪八十年代末。在下从医，应邀赴美国参加人工心脏开发工作。出国之前，准备买一些具有中国特色礼品送给心脏外科主任 Flemma 医学博士。便到北京友谊商店等仔细观看瓷器、景泰蓝、书画等等。对文物的爱好和收藏不知不觉始于踏上异国他乡之际。可以说是天时地利加机遇。八十年代末乃至九十年代初收藏中国文物的国人极少，真品的概率比较高，加之自己有工作收入，为收藏提供了经济保障和必要条件之一。紧张工作之余，花大量时间阅读文物书籍文献、参观博物馆、逛古董店及旧货店、参加各种大小拍卖会等等，不限种类。持之以恒几十年，循序渐进，大量上手各种真伪品，不断总结，去伪存真。收藏最大的乐趣就是学会读懂藏品的过程，以平静心态对待每一件藏品，无论对错。收藏过程最锻炼的就是如何快速、初步判断研究物品的真伪。可谓是养兵千日用兵一时，可遇不可求。因为很随机，不知道在哪里会碰到哪一类文物，取或舍就是几分钟的决定，考验眼力和综合知识，机不可失失不再来。很多情况下只要做到初步判断不是伪品，先藏之，后再研究。这种收藏逻辑获益匪浅，不少藏品是通过后续研究才认识到是极为罕见的重要文物。在下收藏范围较广，包括瓷器、系列宫廷掐丝珐琅器、青铜器、古家具、重要宫廷御玺及文房器、书画等。除了收藏真品外，也经常买一些仿品作为研究对比，并且也是不错的家庭装饰品。大型专业拍卖会能够接触学习各种真品，而小型民间拍卖会以及家庭卖旧物常常会有惊喜收获，甚至捡大漏。

退休之余，开始整理几十年来的收藏品，一直在思考藏品的归属，毕竟岁月不饶人。打算尝试做一个有意义的网上博物馆，尤其是还原一些重要文物的历史真面目。可能在下在某些领域的收藏、研究和见解更有独到之处，或许可以弥补大型专业博物馆的某些遗憾。思考许久，取名宣德园博物馆。宣德园，顾名思义，在下独中宣德器，也确切藏有一些宣德器真品，以后会慢慢道来。整理工作量相当大，不求完美，但求真实。

PREFACE

I started the collections in late 1980s when I was a heart surgeon and invited to United State to join the team to develop an artificial heart. I tried to find some special Chinese gifts for Dr. Flemma, chief of the department of cardiac surgery, before leaving for U.S. I went to many places, such as Beijing friend-ship store, to look at ceramics, cloisonnes, paintings, etc. That was how I was inspired to begin my collections of Chinese antiques. To me, it is absolutely lucky, "favorable timing, geographical and human conditions" because very few Chinese people involved in collecting Chinese antiques in late 1980s or even early 1990s and relatively high chances to get the real Chinese antiques even for new collectors. On the other hand, financially I had stable income to support the basic requirement for collecting antiques during that time. After my hard work in the hospital, I spent a lot of time to read books or literatures about Chinese antiques, visit museums and antique stores including second hand stores, participate all kind of auctions. I have been consistently involving in learning and collecting Chinese antiques for more than 36 years and gradually gaining more and more knowledges and experiences in identifying Chines antiques by touching so many real or fake pieces in person. The most happiness from collections is the process to correctly identify the pieces finally, either real or fake, and I always treat every piece with calm mind no matter right or wrong. The most challenge was how to quickly identify any piece when I saw randomly and only a few minutes to decide if real or fake, buy it or give up. All were really based on the good eyesight and comprehensive knowledges. The Chinese idioms "Raise an army for a thousand days and use it for a while" and "something can be find but not sought". You never know where and what kind antiques could be seen because all are random and quick decision that means "It is now or never". In many cases, I just purchased what I found as long as I realized it could not be a fake based on my comprehensive knowledge, and then did more researches late. I took this advantages in my collections and later studies demonstrated that some are extremely rare important Chinese antiques. My collections are broad including ceramics, series of palace cloisonnes, bronzes, royal real and royal inkstone, antique furniture and paintings, etc. Besides collecting real antiques, I also purchased some fake items for the purpose of comparisons and researches and also good for home decorations. Large professional auctions are good resources to learn real antiques and but some big surprises may catch your eyes from small and local auctions, or important treasures may be found even from online auctions.

I am trying to organize all my collections over three decades after my retirement last year and have been thinking over where these antiques to go because of my age, getting older and older. Maybe better to build a personal museum online, and more important to reveal the historical origins of some very important items I collected. Perhaps I did more serious studies and collections in certain field and have my own experiences and opinions about them which might remedy some blanks for national museums. I decided to name my website as Xuande Hall after thinking over and over. Of course, the "Xuande Hall" that means I do like Xuande items and I do collected some real Xuande antiques and will discuss them detail in the future. It is a big job for me to organize these collections and it might not be perfect but truth.