Chinese craft sourcing for museum shops
And for the cultural gift programmes that sit around them — exhibition ranges, membership lines, gallery retail. Museum retail is not gift retail with a different bag: the object has to survive being explained, by a label, by a docent, by a visitor who knows the period. This page is about what changes when that is the standard.
We find the workshop that makes the tradition, not the factory that imitates it
A museum shop buying "Chinese ceramics" can be sold four different things at four different prices: Jingdezhen porcelain, a Dehua copy, a Chaozhou utility line, or a decorated blank bought in and printed. All four photograph the same.
Our job is to establish which one a quotation is actually for, before you commit a budget to it — and then to check that the bulk order matches the sample you approved, in the workshop, while a replacement is still possible.
You pay the workshop for the goods. Our fee is 10% of goods value, with a US$300 minimum below US$3,000, invoiced separately. How an order runs, step by step →
Four traditions, one shelf, four prices. Telling them apart is the work.
They look like one purchase order. They are three different jobs.
Most museum ranges mix all three, and the mistake is applying one standard of checking to all of them. A reproduction is judged on fidelity; an interpretive object is judged on honesty; shop basics are judged on consistency.
Collection-led reproduction
A piece from your own collection, or one you have licensed. The job is fidelity: the same profile, the same glaze behaviour, the same weight in the hand. Judged against the object, not against a photograph of it.
Interpretive range
Objects that carry an idea out of an exhibition — a motif, a technique, a period — without pretending to be the original. Judged on whether the reference is used correctly, and whether the object is honest about what it is.
Shop and membership basics
Scarves, notebooks, boxes, small ceramics, the volume line. Judged on consistency: the fifth carton has to look like the first, and the second production run has to look like the first.
The five things museum buyers actually worry about
None of them is price. All of them are things you cannot see in a supplier's photographs.
Colour drift between sample and bulk
A glaze that matches under a workshop's fluorescent tube can sit two shades off under gallery lighting. We measure the sample and the bulk under the same light, and record the number rather than the impression.
Iconography that is wrong, not just ugly
A motif borrowed from the wrong period, a colour that belongs to a rank or an occasion, a pattern that means something other than what the label says. We ask the workshop what the pattern is called and where it comes from, in Chinese, and write down the answer.
Materials you cannot legally import
Ivory, tortoiseshell, certain woods and any material from a protected species. We decline these rather than risk a seizure at the border — and we ask for the species and finish declaration before a quotation is accepted, not after.
Packaging that reads as airport souvenir
Board weight, print method, foil, ribbon and the label area. We can specify and inspect all of it. We do not design your packaging, and we will tell you when a box is being asked to do work the object cannot support.
The fifth is timing, and it is the one nobody controls: an exhibition opening does not move. The workshop's calendar is the risk, not the sea freight — which is why we quote the workshop's production weeks separately from transit, and tell you which of the two is tight.
What we check on a museum order that we do not check on a gift order
Every order is inspected against a checklist agreed before production. On museum work, four lines get added.
Additional checks · museum and gallery work
Checklist lines, not a client order| Check | What is recorded |
|---|---|
| Fidelity to the reference | Profile, principal dimensions, weight and surface behaviour measured against the object or the approved sample — recorded as numbers, not adjectives. |
| Motif and attribution | The workshop's own name for the pattern, its stated origin, and whether the technique claimed is the technique used. |
| Materials declaration | Species, finish, adhesive and any applied decoration declared in writing before the order is placed. |
| Packaging and marking | Board weight, print method, label area, barcode space and country-of-origin marking, checked on a packed carton. |
These are the four lines we add. The standard lines — quantity, dimensions, weight, colour, finish, hardware and packing — apply to every order, and the format is the same one shown on How it works.
Reproduction rights are yours to hold, not ours to grant
Reproducing an object is a rights question before it is a manufacturing question. The rights sit with the museum that holds the object, or the work is already in the public domain — and that is a determination only you can make.
We source the making. We do not grant, broker or advise on reproduction rights, and before we place an order against a specific object we will ask you to confirm in writing that you hold them.
This is not a formality. It is the difference between a range that can be sold openly and one that has to be withdrawn from the shop.
Objects that photograph beautifully and carry rights that are not ours to give.
The three numbers, stated plainly
No range is right for every design, so these are the shapes rather than promises. We will tell you where your brief falls.
| What to expect | |
|---|---|
| Volume | Workshop minimums usually land at 50–200 pieces per design. Museum ranges often run smaller. When a design cannot be made economically at your quantity we will say so, rather than quote a price that assumes a subsidy. |
| Sample | 7–15 days from the workshop, then courier. Sample and courier are at cost, with receipts. |
| Production | The workshop's calendar, quoted in writing before you commit. We separate production weeks from transit days so you can see which one is actually tight. |
| Our fee | 10% of goods value, with a US$300 minimum below US$3,000. Agreed in writing, invoiced separately from the goods. |
Full fee structure, including what is at cost and what is quoted separately, is on Services & Pricing.
Send a brief, get two to four workshops
Tell us the object, the quantity and the date you need it. If you are matching something in a collection, send the photographs and any dimensions you have — that is enough to start. The first shortlist is free and creates no purchase obligation.
Send a sourcing request