In 2014 Liu Yiqian placed the winning bid for a fifteenth century ‘chicken cup’. The porcelin cup was made in China during the Chenghua period and is decorated with chickens. Liu Yiqian paid for the cup with his amex card. After auction fees, he paid 36 million dollars.
Liu filled the ‘chicken cup’ with tea and drank from it. Before Liu Yiqian drank from the cup, it had been in the Meiyintang Collection owned by the Swiss Zuellig family. Before then, it had been in the collection of Leopold Dreyfus, Sakamoto Goro, Giuseppe Eskenazi and Edward Chow. Although ‘chicken cups’ were apparently intended to have wine drunk from them, Liu drank tea.
At what point does a culture die? Perhaps when it enters a museum. A culture, even in a yogurt, is only good when alive.
I have a number of old books in my collection, some books from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The books often have previous owners inscribed on their endpapers. One book even has multiple generations of the same family. I always like a book more when it has a lineage. There’s a part of me that thinks
Some people place ex libris plates into their books. But I prefer to see the handwriting of the previous owner, it feels personal. I really like when one owner has scratched over the name of a previous owner. This book is now mine.
I was gifted a book by my grandfather. It is the Ilford Manual of Photography, and my grandfather’s name is inscribed inside its cover, along with a date of acquisition that would have made him twenty years old at the time. That book now belongs to me and I do wonder if I should add my own name below it.
Perhaps I will write my name into them, but rather than pen I’ll use pencil.
July, 2023