Miscellaneous
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Customs Seal:
To protect Chinese cultural goods and to control the exporting of several dealers throughout the United States and Abroad, the custom inspectors have imported the practice of using a customs seal.
A customs seal is simply a holographic customs sticker or wax seal placed on the piece so that at no time a piece could be exchanged or replaced with another before loading into the shipping container.
China has over 3000 years of history involving furniture; therefore pieces between 80-190 years old do not necessarily need to be categorized as cultural goods under protection.
Specific Age:
There are so many different places of origins of the furniture; it would be impossible, in every instance, to obtain a certificate of authenticity. However in some cases it is possible, and there can always be some reasonable determination of origin and age.
Quality of refinishing and rebuilding widely varies from dealer to dealer. While some antiques do not reveal evidence of use at all, some need work. Damaged parts are sometimes replaced with new parts. With some very old pieces it might be necessary to completely strip the paint and repair cracks or flaws in the wood itself.
If you would like to have a certificate of authenticity for you piece, please let us know in advance and we will try to get it for you. It usually takes about 2 weeks and comes in the mail after you item has been delivered.
Brass Metal Fittings:
A lot of the original brass metal fittings are missing from the original antiques and are replaced with new hardware. Absence of original fittings is usually one of two reasons: One being that during the Cultural Revolution China, every possible piece of metal was retrieved, melted down and used for manufacturing weapons. The second reason being that these antique fittings are rare and can be more valuable when sold separately by dealers who specialize in only fittings.
Bureaucratically Export Hurdles in China:
Exporting furniture from China is sometimes not as easy as just going to your local furniture dealer or wholesaler. Different provinces in China have different policies. To protect the Chinese Cultural Goods, there are a few different national policies and restrictions that can make the trade and commerce of antique furniture and other goods difficult.
The dealer in China has to have an "Antiques Buy License", an "Antiques Sell License", an "Antiques Restoration License" and lastly an "Antiques Load License", which allows the dealers to directly load the antiques from the refinishing location directly into the container.
