VietNamNet Bridge – Duong Ha, Vietnam’s largest antique collection by couple Duong Minh Thoi (1899-1976) and Ha Thi Ngoc (1902-1979), debuted on Thursday at the Museum of Vietnamese History in District 1.

A visitor inspects artifacts at the Duong Ha collection exhibition at the Museum of Vietnamese History in Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in HCMC’s District 1.

The couple started collecting from 1930-40s with an aim to prevent Vietnamese antiques being sold abroad. From 1976, after inheriting the collection from her parents, Doctor Duong Quynh Hoa and her husband Huynh Thanh Nghi increased the collection to 3,360 artifacts. After the death of Hoa, who was Vietnam’s minister of health from 1976 to 1981, the collection was donated to the Museum of Vietnamese History by her husband in October.

Two antique researchers from the U.K, John Stevenson and John Guy, in 1997 published book “Vietnamese ceramics: A separate tradition” featuring this collection in the U.S.

Artifacts from the collection varies from jewelry, household appliances, musical instruments and art works made of iron, cooper, silver, stone, glass, paper, wood, fabric, ivory, ceramics and terra-cotta.

Some 2,976 artifacts dated back 2,500 years and originated from Vietnam, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, India, France, Germany and Turkey.

A wooden ivory carved antique is on display at the exhibition.

A highlight is a Japanese-style tea bowl with Chinese characters, a gift Hoa received from a business trip to Japan on the occasion of 50th anniversary of Japan’s communist party (1922-1972). Other highlights are pottery products made in Vietnam, Japan and China providing historical and cultural knowledge to audiences. Around 2,307 artifacts from the collection, 68%, originated from China.

Huynh Thi Vinh Mai, a family representative, said that they granted this collection to the museum to fulfill the wishes of Thoi-Ngoc to preserve Vietnamese antiques for local people to admire and learn from.

This is the second private antique collection after one from late scholar Vuong Hong Sen was also donated to the Museum of Vietnamese History.

Source: SGT