Antique collector Lam Du Xenh sifts through his old coins

A herbal doctor in central Vietnam boasts a staggering collection of antiques and ancient artifacts.

With the meager earnings from his small herbal medicine practice and pharmacy in Chau O, Quang Ngai Province, Xenh has never had the income to buy up expensive collectables at shows and conventions.

Instead, he’s done it the proletarian way.

He’s traveled far and wide in and around the central province, introducing himself to recyclers, scrap collectors and the owners of metal waste yards.

Anytime his contacts come upon materials that look like they might possibly be of historical value, they call Xenh.

Compilation

His collection crowds his house, where one can’t turn around without running into a shelf of ceramics, a table full of pottery, a collection of Dong Son bronze drums, ancient coins, vases or small jars, each centuries or even millennia old.

His pride and joy, a 1.4-ton coin collection, contains over 200 kinds of bronze coins and 50 types of zinc coin from Vietnam, China, Japan and North Korea.

“Most of the coins are from the Chinese Northern Song (960-1127) and Quing (1644-1912) dynasties as well as the Vietnamese early Le (980- 1009) to Nguyen (1802-1945) dynasties,” Xenh said.

Xenh spends much of his time consulting and sifting at Quang Ngai scrap yards and has also scoured the central towns of Hue city, Nha Trang and several outposts in the Central Highlands.

Luck of the draw

One of Xenh’s most prized possessions is a 2,000-year-old bronze drum, from one of best-known cultures.

But he obtained the drum completely by accident.

Sifting through scraps one day, he was intrigued by several bronze fragments and bought them for VND70,000 (US$4). Not knowing what they were, he showed them to To Quang Dung, a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Vietnam (UNESCO Vietnam).

Dung said the scraps were from a Dong Son drum and was even able to have them reassembled into the ancient instrument.

“How unbelievable it is that experts at UNESCO can recreate these drums?” Xenh says. “And now I own ancient artifacts!”

But it’s not just luck that gets Xenh his precious pieces, it’s perseverance. Over the last 10 years, he says he’s collected at least 2,000 fragments of various kinds.

“Though I’m never sure if the broken pieces I collect are valuable or not, I do my best to collect those that might be precious,” he says.

Xenh’s collection also includes two terra cotta burial jars containing cremated human remains from over 2,000 years ago. People of the ancient culture of Sa Huynh, the predecessors of the Cham, were one of the only communities to have buried their dead this way.

Not what you pay for

But Xenh says that not everything in his house is impressive. He’s also collected his fair share of junk that turned out to be junk.

Although Xenh knows Chinese and has spent countless hours researching and studying relic collection in books, newspapers and online, he’s still been ripped off.

He says he’s lost a total of VND200 million ($11,000) in purchasing worthless items after being fooled by counterfeiters.

And he also says he has many deep regrets for selling several items at inexpensive prices, only to find out later they were dozens of times more valuable.

Sharing the wealth

Xenh is a member of the UNESCO Vietnam club, which he says is one of the best things he’s ever done. He says he’s learned a lot about history and the preservation of historical items since joining the group

He’s also donated many antiques, such as swords from the Tay Son Dynasty (1778–1802), to museums in Bac Giang Province, Hue and Hanoi.

Xenh says his goal now is to open his own museum as he doesn’t want to just keep the treasures for himself at home.

He says the treasures must be put in the right place so that everyone can learn about Vietnamese history and culture.

“Collectors like me don’t expect to sell antiques for our own benefit.”

Reported by Hien Cu