A French man's passion for Chinese bronze wares

Understanding Ancient Chinese Bronzes. [Photo/amazon.cn]

A French collector named Christian Deydier showed his new book Understanding Ancient Chinese Bronzes at an exhibition for Poly Auction in Beijing on Dec 1.

"I am half French and half Chinese," the author said.

He once studied Chinese in France and later turned to archeology and Jia Gu Wen, or Oracle-Bone Scripture (the earliest evidence of the Chinese use of the written word), at National Taiwan University.

The book displays the value of green bronzes in traditional Chinese culture in the perspective of the collector. In the 200 pages, Deydier analyzes the production skills, functions, decorations of Chinese bronze wares based on his 30 years of research and collection.

He once donated his own collections to Chinese museums, including a silver box from the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) to the Shaanxi History Museum in 1993, and 28 gold accessorizes from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771BC) to the Gansu Provincial Museum last year.