Nguyen Van Thong’s Dong Son bronze drums

VietNamNet Bridge – For the first time, hundreds of antiques made of materials ranging from wood to gold owned by 20 collectors nationwide will be exhibited at the 2007 Hue Traditional Craft Festival that starts today, June 8.

Antique collector Tran Dinh Son from HCM City, for instance, will contribute to the exhibition with 60 items from his tea collection including 4 different tea sets for 4 seasons, different types of tea trays and tables made of valuable wood and engraved with mother-of-pearl or ivory as well as a wide range of teapots and tea cookers.

There will also be more than 150 objects from collector Tu Anh’s southern antiques collection, which includes Dong Son, Nguyen Dynasty and Champa bronze jewellery that date back to the 11th and 12th centuries and a gilded nine-dragon tower made at the end of the Le Dynasty.

Other collectors will come to the festival with more than 30 antiques dating from the Nguyen Dynasty, Vietnam’s last dynasty. Thanh Hoa province will contribute the most to the festival with nearly 200 antiques, more than 100 of which date back to the Dong Son period.

According to the organisation committee, of the collectors to participate in the upcoming festival, only collector Hoang Van Thong from Thanh Hoa has established his own private antique museum. Others have exhibited their collections at many places, but this will be their first participation in a bronze, wooden and gold antique exhibition in a festival.

The organisers hope that these antiques will not only serve exhibition purposes, but also encourage and inspire artisans and traditional craft villages to think about producing antique-style souvenir products.

(Source: Lao Dong)