Fancy a Ming dynasty mandarin dress to adorn a spare wall in your house? Bargain price of 35,000 Chinese RMB? Er..that equates to around £2500 or $USD4000 but, hey, they are stunningly beautiful! As you can tell Zhang’s is a very upmarket antique texiles and jewellery specialist.

Many of the pieces are museum-quality Ming and Qing dynasty textiles. Several embroidered sections of sleeves and skirts are mounted and framed. All are certified authentic and you will be given a laminated certificate when you purchase anything from their store. This may be required at customs as the Chinese government have strict laws about exporting antiques over a certain age however no-one showed any interest in my cardboard and bubblewrapped parcels as I was leaving.

Not everything is so outstandingly expensive. I picked up a pair of framed delicately embroidered sleeves dating from the 1840’s for around £150 each. Other embroidered antiques include pillows and shoes as well as exquisite jewellery such as hair combs, bracelets and brooches.

There are also smaller pieces, framed and unframed so whatever your budget, you will be guaranteed to come away with a beautiful piece of China’s history.

www.zhangstextiles.com
The store is located in the China World Shopping Mall, Beijing and there is also one in Shanghai.