Antique collector

(Baonghean) - As time goes by, life gradually changes, everything is dressed in a new color, brighter, more vibrant. There are long, wide roads, luxurious, modern urban areas, skyscrapers in the city. Having been attached to Nghe Tinh for more than half of my life, I feel the movement in each of those changes. But perhaps because I am always nostalgic and love old things, I have devoted my life to the profession of "finding antiques".

After graduating from the Library Department of the University of Culture, I returned to work at the Provincial Library. At first, I worked as a librarian, processing books, in charge of the reading room, building grassroots movements, etc. Gradually, I approached and became closely involved in the work of geography, collecting documents and writing books about local history. It was this work that led me to the passion of collecting antiques and collecting important data about historical periods of Nghe Tinh land.

Mr. Dao Tam Tinh with antiques in the exhibition room. Photo: PT

One time, while reading a document, I learned that France is the largest center for ancient Vietnamese coins and that the Vietnamese currency museum is located in the National Library in Paris. That information made me ponder. Why are those ancient coins not found in Vietnam or any other country in Indochina? How can we preserve those rare coins right in our own country? And I was determined to start a new journey to fulfill those concerns: searching for ancient coins.

I went to scrap dealers, inquired and picked up tarnished and rusty coins. At first, things were not very smooth, because ancient coins are quite rare now and people do not care much about preserving them. However, when I found a coin, I was happy, all my fatigue seemed to disappear. At night, I lit the lamp and sat looking at them until late at night, trying to understand the meaning and content of the characters written on the coins. Reading books was not enough, searching the internet was still unclear, so I brought those ancient coins to some scholars who were fluent in Chinese characters. Indeed, when the elders deciphered the characters, I understood that each coin contained a rich historical and cultural treasure. Not only were there a variety of fonts, but each historical period, each material had different printing styles, shapes and sizes of coins. They were associated with each king, each dynasty and certain years, letting us know the fluctuations of history. Since then, I have been passionate, interested and eager to find more antiques. From a bronze teapot from the Tran Dynasty, a ceramic vase from the Phung Nguyen Dynasty, a stone axe dating back thousands and tens of thousands of years to ancient documents left by the people, wherever I heard about them, I would look for them. My meager civil servant salary was not enough for me to buy many valuable items, but there were times when I saw antiques facing the possibility of being lost, so I had to sell my personal belongings to save money to redeem them. My wife and children often gently reminded me not to use real money to buy items that were no longer of any use, but to me, those items had great value not only for my research process but also as a place to preserve, a voice, a soul of the nation in the past.

Today, there are still many ancient books preserved by later generations as heirlooms passed down from their ancestors. Among them, there is a book of Kieu in Nom script found in a family in Thanh Xuan commune (Thanh Chuong district). Or valuable documents such as the set of woodblocks that Mr. Tran Hieng in Cong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district) donated to the provincial library. These are very valuable antiques, revealing important sources of information for historians to revive the history of the nation.

I have been to villages, met the elders in the village, searched for relics according to their stories and asked about the remaining antiques, traveled everywhere, went to antique shops hoping to get artifacts. That period of time was almost thirty years. Now, when I am retired, I have more time to explore and research the antiques I have collected. Coins of all kinds from the Dinh Tien Hoang period to the Bao Dai period, paper money from the time when the Indochina Bank was established and later when our country had the State Bank, and many other artifacts... The more I researched, the more I explored, the new discoveries in old antiques urged me to record those things so that the next generation could understand and know about history. So I wrote books, wrote about local history with the customs, habits, and daily culture of the Vietnamese people, the people of Nghe Tinh through the ages. Books such as: "Author Nghe Tinh", "Famous Scholars of Kieu", "Cau Doi Xu Nghe", "Bong Thi Nhan", "Ken Nha Le - History and Legend", "Searching in the Cultural Heritage of Nghe An",... are the brainchildren that I have distilled and researched during the years of immersing myself in history.

In my spare time, I participate in activities of the Lam River Cultural Heritage and Antiques Association and go to the antiques exchange market which is usually held on Sunday mornings in Vinh City. There, I meet people with the same interests, admire antiques from many different dynasties, collected from many provinces across the country. Because the passion has seeped into my blood, the moment I learn a little more about those antiques, it is very happy and wonderful.

Every time I enter the small room where I display artifacts, the history and daily life of our people in the past appear clearly in my mind. I still secretly wish that I could build an antique museum so that future generations can feel the preciousness of small copper coins, see the uniqueness of Uncle Ho's "financial money", and admire the rich and sophisticated patterns on ancient artifacts. And now, every day I get to chat over a cup of tea with the elderly, comment on antiques, and admire the cultural identity of Vietnam in the past, that is enough flavor and pleasure to relieve old age.

Phuong Thao

(Recorded according to the story of Mr. Dao Tam Tinh, former Director of Nghe An Library)