Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2018 (Issue 105)

When did Mandarin Arts start up and why did you focus on Oriental products? As one of the first British students to study in China in the late ’70s, I had always marvelled at the exquisite treasures on sale in The Friendship Store in Beijing. Gold filigree peacocks, cloisonné vases, delicate cork carved into Chinese landscapes and pagodas, the mysterious world of jade and the achievements of Chinese porcelain manufacture over the dynasties were all a source of interest to me. Visiting temples and palaces and Buddhist caves, where art was on a grand scale, continued to develop my passion for oriental art. Chinese restaurants hung bright red silky lanterns outside, Muslim restaurants with blue silky lanterns. The first idea for Mandarin Arts came to me back in the mid ’80s when I was working for an American company in Beijing. I was guiding some American buyers through the mazes of the Canton Fair as they placed orders for such things as traditional Chinese clothing, handicrafts, lanterns, fans, scroll pictures, terracotta warrior figurines and double-sided silk embroidery, all of which they planned to display on old tea chests in a warehouse open to the general public. I had to visit factories to make sure the orders were correct, the quality good and that the stock would be ready on time to ship to America. It was no mean feat and I was soon learning how to navigate my way through the complex and bureaucratic Chinese system. Growing up I’d longed to become an air hostess, so that I could travel the world, then that changed to a bi-lingual secretary in the Middle East following the oil boom, then I wanted to be a foreign journalist, anything as long as I didn’t have to sit at a desk all day! I’d never thought of starting a business and I knew very little about commerce. Then one day I had suddenly had enough of restrictions and office politics where I was working and, following a conversation with my father (my chief mentor), I decided to throw caution to the wind and invest all my savings to start an import business. The plan was to bring Chinese culture to the UK at a time when the Bamboo Curtain was beginning to lift and people were wondering whether Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous observation, ‘China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world’, was about to start happening. How has the company developed over the years? Before joining me at Mandarin Arts, my husband, Lifan Lei, had trained as a classical singer performing with one of China’s leading ensembles. Surrounded by an artistic community, he had also developed a good understanding of Chinese folklore and history along with an appreciation and passion for traditional design. As a regular traveller in China, products often caught his eye and were then tracked down to become part of our collection. Following early successes, we gained confidence and began importing a broad spectrum of products, but always with an oriental flavour. Mandarin Arts began as a business importing a range of handicrafts from China. Subsequently, carved camphor chests and other occasional furniture were added to the mix. The camphor chests were popular, and were even purchased for the Indian wedding market to hold part of a dowry. Another early product was a pair of chiming iron ‘health’ balls which, if used regularly, provided relief for people suffering from arthritis of the hand or arm. We sold plain steel balls, hand- painted balls, cloisonné balls and balls with small magnets embedded in the surface and all these were available in a range of sizes depending on the owner’s palm size and dexterity. The boxes were plush with velvet lining and were covered in attractive brocades and it soon became apparent that they were becoming a collectable item. Having been dropped from our range some years ago, we still have customers asking for them nearly every week and we are about to take delivery of new stock. Although some trends go around in circles, our product focus has slowly moved over time. Twenty years ago we were well known for our vast range of figurines, although in today’s catalogue there’s barely a figurine in sight. Instead, they have largely been replaced by functional items, still in an oriental style but no longer purely decorative. Tell us about your product offering. Our catalogue today is dominated by porcelain. Chinese porcelain has been Founder and Director Siân Nancarrow takes us on Mandarin Arts’ 30 year journey treasures of the orient 48 giftfocus