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Section
1:¡iKING OF COGNAC¡j
As a tiny place, Hong
Kong has been "top of the world" in many aspects. Among the
field of miniature liquor collection, the most renowned is probably be
Mr Man's Chan, the president of the Hong Kong Miniature Liquor Club. Having
a collection of over 14,000 miniature Cognac, most of which have a history
of over a century, the 46-year-old Man's is the gentleman having the most
valuable miniatures of liquor as well as Cognac. At the same time, he
is also the only person owning the most precious miniature liquor and
insuring for his collections. Although not the champion regarding the
volume of collections, Man's is definitely matchless in the amount of
miniatures of Cognac and Louis XIII miniatures, especially the miniatures
Louis XIII , the mighty dream of many miniature fanciers, hard to get
a hand on, which Man's has a number of 24 different miniature Louis XIII
in 14 different years. What an unbreakable record, isn't it! This is why
Man's is named¡iKING OF COGNAC¡jamong the foreign collectors.
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Remy Martin space miniatures
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Part of Mr. Chan's miniatures Louis XIII collection
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Man's
became a photographer when just got out of school. He once devoted himself
to photography and gathering antique cameras about 20 years ago. He fell
in love with the gorgeously charming miniatures at first sight and first
had the idea to make them his own after sharing their stunningly beauty
in his photography tutor's home. He was determined to start his miniature
collection until he suffered from a theft and all of his cameras were
stolen.
Back then, it was way not easy to get miniatures from shops selling. Stores
and groceries only sold very few commonly seen ones. For those special
or overseas versions, there were only three shops you might try. They
had their own expert teams sent to Europe and USA to search for the products,
resulting in a undoubtedly costly price, which could be as more than 10
times of the foreign retail price. Man's went to those shops to see if
there were any new miniatures as if he were on shift, and he seldom bargained
when came across his favourites.
When first started his miniature collection, Man's all purchases were
solely his own preferences, without any guidance or instructions on how
to develop a systematic collection. Because of neither knowing about how
to make nor making choices, he had spent quite an amount of money on those
non-valuable miniatures, accounting for thousands among his total 14,000
miniatures. Keeping learning in his road of collection, finding collectors
sharing the same interest, and staying in touch with the foreign miniatures
clubs, Man's realized that collecting miniatures in different branches
without any purposes never came to an end.
Later, Man's took over his father's marine product business, and expanded
it after his father passed away. Since he preferred travelling to Europe
for his interests, he developed his trade business there, so he could
satisfy both work and leisure at the same time. Due to a deceit of HKD30,000
in early years, Man's simply decided to open his own miniature store,
but then he found out that such a business cost two to three million just
for stocks, and he was losing money over half of the time since its opening
(more than a decade ago).
"Owning
a store is solely for interests," Man's said. "When I get some
lovely miniatures from time to time, I'm reluctant to put them on sale
in my store, and that's why my collection is running bigger and bigger.
This is a hobby hard to persist. This 14,000 collection is already equal
to the cost of one ordinary apartment."
In
the past twenty years, Man's has gathered more than 14,000 different miniatures.
It is said that 20 years ago, Man's had a dream of owning a batch of miniatures
with history of over a century. When he knew that a French oak bucket
manufacturer would like to sell his collection, among which were exquisites
of hundred years, to make his dream comes true, he spent HKD1.5 million
on one throw. Beating out a Japanese buyer, Man's finally acquired this
treasure of 6500 miniatures. Among these exquisites were quite a number
of miniatures Cognac, adding to his original procession, the total had
reached a number of over 7000, promoting him to the short list of the
amount of miniature Cognac in the world.
To
be continued
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