News
2022 Update
Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've posted anything (or any items). I'm very much alive. Let me explain what's happening
Basically, starting around the beginning of the year, Hong Kong, where I'm based, has had a fairly big wave of Omicron. One result of that wave is a continued attempt to limit the spread as well as importation of Covid cases. They were hoping to do this by limiting flights. It obviously didn't work as there was a whole month when we had tens of thousands of cases per day. In the meanwhile, flights to the US, Canada,...
Four volumes on Meiji era uniforms
Japanese Navy Uniform Specification Booklet
A few years ago I bought four volumes of really old looking books that are clearly specification for Imperial Japanese army and navy uniforms from the early Meiji period. They were not cheap at all, but were really cool with nice drawings. I finally got around to scanning at least one volume - the one for navy petty-officers. The above photo is the first page of the images and the date on the book suggests it's from the regulations of Meiji 6th Year (1873). I scanned it into a PDF and you can download it by clicking...
Anatomy of a fake tray
A customer recently asked me about an item seen on eBay - a supposedly 1st Sino-Japanese War (1895) commemorative bronze tray. It sounded a bit dodgy, and then I saw the pictures...
Well, there are a number of things wrong with this. I've cut out the seller's name - it's one of those sellers based in Mainland China who sells everything from antique vases to random trinkets. Usually, when it's a seller who sells everything and they're all a few hundred dollars fixed and are supposedly 200 years old.... it's not right. The Chinese antique market is...
New search function
The search function on the site has been a bit rubbish - mostly because the default search gives you everything, including a lot of old items that were sold as well as not having functionalities like sorting the search results. I just implemented a new search feature that gives you a lot more options with regards to what you are looking for - please let me know how it works and if you like it. Thanks again for all your support!