THE CHINALAIS | A 50-YEAR COLLECTION

No one is more astonished at the title of this auction than we are. A 50-year collection! It all began when we were living in Thailand in the early 1970s. After having a baby and building a house designed by Vichai, a young architect with a brand-new office, we didn’t have much money left over to buy anything extra. Even so, little by little we managed to acquire pieces of antique Hill Tribe silver jewelry and Shan, Chinese and Cambodian embossed silver boxes. You will see some of them in this auction.

It didn’t take long for us to become entranced with antique tribal art. The older work was created with spontaneity and rich with stories. It contained a spirit that was individual, cultural, and communal. It had, in short, both beauty and soul.

Then, in the late 70s and early 80s, Vichai had several architectural projects in Bahrain and we moved there. He set up a branch office and, for fun, we opened the first indoor plant shop on the island. The business took off and we added gifts, crafts, and antiques, and later a restaurant (plus two more kids!). Every Friday we would drive into the island’s desert “countryside” to look for antique Persian tribal rugs, old chests, coffee pots, and other objects, or go to the souk to search for antique Bedouin jewelry. Vichai’s account of looking for old carpets in Bahrain is an entertaining read in HALI Magazine. “After the Rains” can be found on our website at https://www.chinalai.net/news-updates/after-the-rains.

After five years we left the shop and restaurant in the hands of friends and moved back to New York. Vichai continued to practice architecture in the United States and also in Nigeria. At the same time we opened a gallery. Within a few years we were participating in antique and ethnographic shows, and one or both of us traveled several times a year to Bahrain, Southeast Asia, and China. Vichai shifted his attention from architecture to the ethnographic antique business. Between doing shows and making buying trips we were away so often that we decided to close the gallery. Our collection grew, and so did our community of loyal customers. If you are one of them, we send you our heartfelt thanks.

Throughout the years it seemed that we bought almost as many books as artifacts. We wanted to know the origin of the art, how it was made and used, and what meaning it held and communicated through its patterns and iconography. We wanted to understand the people who made it, how they lived, and their history. We developed relationships with sellers, the runners, villagers, and tribal communities. We ate together, attended weddings and rituals, became close to an entire Akha village, and always, always, asked questions and did our best to expand our knowledge and understanding.

As we learned, we enthusiastically began to write. HALI Magazine was one of the first publications to include our articles. We curated numerous exhibits at tribal and Asian shows thanks to promoters Bill Caskey and Elizabeth Lees. Articles we wrote for their show catalogs, impeccably designed by graphic artist Marcia Loeb, complemented the exhibits brilliantly installed by Clare Graham and Bob Breen. We both continued to write. Lee gave talks at Textile Society of America symposiums and to museum and collectors’ groups, and Vichai wrote numerous articles and a couple of books on tribal customs and art for a well-known Thai magazine.

Our subjects included Li long bei (dragon covers), Yao priests’ robes, Cambodian silk ikats, Hua Yao embroidered skirts, Li embroidered head cloths, and more—many of which are offered in this auction. (More of our articles can be found on our website at https://www.chinalai.net/ articles.) In 2005 we applied for and were awarded a Rockefeller Foundation residency to further study yantra: talismanic drawings, engravings, or paintings executed by yantra masters to offer protection and invoke blessings from the cosmic universe. Yantra drawings and amulets are also represented in the auction.

Drawing from our own collection, we curated Deeply Yao at El Museo Cultural in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an exhibition of textiles and artifacts from one of the largest and historically creative tribal groups of China and mainland Southeast Asia. (Our thanks to John Morris and Kim Martindale for inviting us.) The Wang Center at Stony Brook University, thanks to Jinyoung Jin, Director, presented our antique tribal blankets in Auspicious Dreams — Blankets of Southern China; and the Nassau County Museum of Art brought a variety of our textiles and objects to Other Worlds Than This, an exhibition that explored the subconscious and supernatural. We wish to acknowledge the numerous tribal populations and their ancestors for bringing so many wondrous works of art into the world.

We thank George Jevremović, Matt Wilcox, Hannah Blubaugh, and all of the staff at Material Culture for recognizing the importance of this collection through a solo auction. As you look through the catalog you will see many of our most beloved textiles, jewelry, objects, paintings, and carpets. Some of these were published, by us and others, and some have never been shown before.

We hope everyone taking this journey with us—whether museum curator, scholar, artist, designer, author, or collector—will feel and share in the splendor, awe, and appreciation we have been so lucky to experience throughout the decades.

Vichai and Lee
May 2026

华人家族 | 五十年珍藏

没有人比我们更惊讶于这场拍卖的标题——五十年珍藏！

这一切始于上世纪七十年代初我们在泰国的生活。那时我们刚生了孩子，又请一位名叫维猜的年 轻建筑师设计了一栋房子，他当时刚拥有一间崭新的事务所。之后，我们手头拮据，无力再添置 其他东西。即便如此，我们还是一点一点地收集了一些古老的山地部落银饰，以及掸族和中国风 格的浮雕银盒。您将在本次拍卖中看到其中的一些。

我们很快就被所有古老的部落艺术品深深吸引。早期的作品充满灵感，蕴含着丰富的故事。它们 既有个人特色，又有文化底蕴，更具有社群精神。简而言之，它们兼具美感与灵魂。

七十年代末八十年代初，维猜在巴林有几个建筑项目，于是我们搬到了那里。他设立了一个分公 司，我们则出于兴趣，在岛上开了第一家室内植物店。生意兴隆，我们又增加了礼品、工艺品和 古董，后来又开了一家餐厅（还多了两个孩子！）。每个星期五，我们都会驱车前往岛上的沙漠 “乡村”，寻找波斯部落古董地毯、旧箱子、咖啡壶和其他古董，或者去集市淘贝都因古董珠宝。 维猜在《哈利》杂志上发表了一篇关于在巴林寻找旧地毯的文章，读来妙趣横生。您可以在我们 的网站上找到《雨后》这篇文章：https://www.chinalai.net/news-updates/after-the-rains。

五年后，我们把商店和餐厅交给朋友打理，搬回了纽约。维猜继续在美国和尼日利亚从事建筑设 计工作。与此同时，我们也开了一家画廊。几年之内，我们便开始参加古董和民族志展览，我们 两人每年都会多次前往巴林、东南亚和中国。维猜将注意力从建筑转向了民族志古董生意。由于 忙于参展和采购，我们经常在外奔波，最终决定关闭画廊。我们的藏品日益丰富，忠实的客户群 体也日益壮大——如果您也是其中一员，我们衷心感谢您。

多年来，我们购买的书籍数量似乎几乎与文物数量一样多。我们渴望了解艺术品的起源、制作和 使用方式；以及它们通过图案和图像所蕴含和传达的意义。我们想要了解制作这些艺术品的人 们，了解他们的生活方式和历史。我们与卖家、搬运工、村民和部落社区建立了联系。我们一起 吃饭，参加婚礼和仪式，与整个阿卡族村庄建立了深厚的友谊，并且始终保持求知欲，尽最大努 力拓展我们的知识和理解。

随着学习的深入，我们开始热情地写作。 《HALI》杂志是最早刊登我们文章的出版物之一。在推 广人比尔·卡斯基和伊丽莎白·李的帮助下，我们策划了众多部落和亚洲展览。我们为他们的展览 图录撰写的文章，与克莱尔·格雷厄姆和鲍勃·布林精心布置的展品相得益彰，这些图录由平面设 计师玛西娅·勒布精心设计。我们两人都继续写作。李在美国纺织学会研讨会以及博物馆和收藏家 团体发表演讲，而维猜则为一家知名的泰国杂志撰写了大量关于部落习俗和艺术的文章。

我们的主题包括黎族龙贝（龙形衣襟）、瑶族祭司长袍、柬埔寨丝绸伊卡特、华瑶族刺绣裙、黎 族刺绣头巾等等，所有这些藏品都将在本次拍卖中亮相。 （您可以在我们的网站 https:// www.chinalai.net/articles 上找到我们的一些文章。）2005年，我们申请并获得了洛克菲勒基金会 的驻留项目，以进一步研究曼陀罗：曼陀罗大师绘制的护身符图案、雕刻或绘画，旨在提供保护 并祈求宇宙的祝福。曼陀罗图案和护身符也将在本次拍卖中亮相。

我们从自己的收藏中汲取灵感，在位于新墨西哥州圣达菲的埃尔文化博物馆策划了“深入瑶族”展 览——该展览展出了来自中国和东南亚大陆最大、最具历史创造力的部落群体之一的纺织品和文 物。（感谢约翰·莫里斯和金·马丁代尔的邀请。）感谢石溪大学王氏文化中心主任金金永 （Jinyoung Jin）的帮助，该中心在“吉祥之梦——中国南方毯子”展览中展出了我们的古代部落毯 子；拿骚郡艺术博物馆将我们的各种纺织品和物品带到了“异世界”展览，该展览探索了潜意识和 超自然现象。

我们还要感谢众多部落及其祖先，感谢他们为世界带来了如此之多的精美艺术品。

我们感谢乔治·耶夫雷莫维奇、马特·威尔科克斯、汉娜·布鲁博以及Material Culture的所有工作人 员，感谢他们通过此次专场拍卖，认可了这批藏品的价值。翻阅图录，您将看到我们最珍爱的纺 织品、珠宝、器物、绘画和地毯。其中一些曾发表过，而另一些则是首次公开亮相。

我们希望所有与我们一同踏上这段旅程的人，无论他们是博物馆馆长、学者、艺术家、设计师、 作家还是收藏家，都能感受到并分享我们数十年来有幸体验到的辉煌、敬畏和赞赏。

维猜和李
2026年5月