A 19th-century trade route restored

FINE CHINA: Mike Byrnes, who co-owns Olde China Trader in Bristol, was immersed in Eastern culture through military and embassy stints beginning in the 1980s. Most of the store’s inventory focuses on furniture and pottery, some dating back to the Ming dynasty. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
FINE CHINA: Mike Byrnes, who co-owns Olde China Trader in Bristol, was immersed in Eastern culture through military and embassy stints beginning in the 1980s. Most of the store’s inventory focuses on furniture and pottery, some dating back to the Ming dynasty. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

The Olde China Trader antique shop in Bristol takes its name and inspiration from the Rhode Island merchants who sailed to the Far East and brought silk, tea and pottery back to 19th-century America.
It was a crucial period in the development of the burgeoning New England economy and in commerce between China and the United States.
But Olde China Trader owner Mike Byrnes was in Beijing during what may have been an equally significant turning point in world affairs and trade: the Tiananmen Square protests.
A military attaché working for the U.S. Department of Defense in Hong Kong when demonstrations against the Chinese government began in 1989, Byrnes was rushed to the capital to act as a liaison with the Chinese army.
“There was initially tremendous excitement and interest,” Byrnes said about Tiananmen Square. “People talk about democracy, but the Chinese people were standing up against economic issues, corruption, nepotism, economic disparities and inflation. It was a fascinating time and a turning point in what China is today.”
Byrnes spent 20 years in China, first with the military in Hong Kong in the 1980s, then in the U.S. embassy in the 1990s, and later for seven years as an executive with Rockwell International and Tyco ending in 2006.
While in the Far East, Byrnes studied Chinese history and politics and developed a deep interest in the country’s art and antiques.
At the American embassy, he met Richard Yang, an antique expert who restores old furniture, and the two began discussing an antique-export business between China and the United States.
While working for Rockwell in 2002, Brynes’ wife Marie opened the Olde China Trader shop in a space on Thames Landing in his home town of Bristol and stocked it with pieces he shipped back from the Far East.
“Coming from Bristol, we saw this as a re-creation of history, because of the Bristol-China trade of the 1800s,” Byrnes said.
The bulk of the Olde China Trader’s collection is furniture and pottery – representing both Ming and Quing dynasties – complimented by an assortment of other items, such as baskets and jade figures. Much of Byrnes’ focus is on pieces from the countryside and objects of everyday use rather than high-end luxury items once belonging to the ruling class.
Even though they may have belonged to peasants, pieces like tea-wood wash basins, jade Buddha statues and porcelain wine jars were handmade with such craftsmanship 300 years ago they are “spectacular works of art,” Byrnes said.
A decade ago demand for such items within China was relatively soft and the market for antiques was in the United States and Europe.
But as China’s economy has boomed, a process that accelerated shortly after Tiananmen Square and Byrnes’ time in the consulate, domestic demand from inside the country soared and now exceeds that coming from the West.
“The market has flipped because the Chinese economy has gotten so much stronger,” Byrnes said. “When I was [in China] buying, the Chinese were throwing away antiques and buying Ikea. Then they realized their antiques were better and more valuable.”
In addition to rising demand from the Far East, Byrnes said the recent appreciation of the Chinese yuan, under American pressure because of exports, has also made it more expensive to import Chinese antiques than it used to be.
That combination of rising prices and Western recession has taken a big bite out of the Olde China Trader’s sales and caused Byrnes to scale back the business.
In December, he moved the business from the Thames Street storefront to a warehouse on Metacom Avenue. From four employees before the recession, he is now down to two.
Sensing that Chinese antique prices were about to rise, Byrnes in 2007 made a major investment in inventory that looked ill-timed when the economy crashed.
But although the pieces he acquired were difficult to move after the recession, in the long term they could become even more valuable if economic recovery in the United States combines with new demand from Asia.
“To some extent the economy and interest in Chinese things are cyclical,” Byrnes said. “I think as the economy improves people will spend on things they like and need.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Olde China Trader
Owner: Mike and Marie Byrnes
Type of Business: Chinese-antique dealer
Location: 244 Metacom Ave., Bristol
Employees: 2
Year Established: 2002
Annual Sales: NA

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