That's neat! Seems like Mid Century is really hot right now among my younger (millenial) friends (I'm Gen X). 

My mom inherited lots of Asian art from her mom, but my first purchase wasn't a piece of porcelain, it was this bronze statue. I bought it in the late 90's in Japantown in San Francisco. I acquired my first piece of Chinese porcelain only last month via a recommendation from Peter, actually. It's Qianlong and I love it. I also acquired a set of three Ming bowls from the Brunk auction recently, so I'm slowly building my collection.

The first porcelain piece I acquired was in the nineteen-seventies, it was mid-century Japanese, I had Peter look at it because it is marked and he thought it is probably Seto but he did not know if it mentions the artist's name, not any great value but I liked it and I liked that it has two marks on it and it looks so sixties.

 The first antique one I acquired was in the early eighties, late Qing.

 My favorite one, I think from eighties in Dallas is Ebisu.

 I have since purchased older items but regardless of age, acquire what you enjoy seeing and displaying.

P.S. I like your Kutani tea caddy and the other pieces in the thread.

@anglq425 very nice! I'm 29 now and it's my first time collecting physical stuff like this. I run an etsy shop where I post neat finds, but I'm focusing my shifts into Asian art decor since the markets warming up with it, and its become stronger topic now. I've always appreciated it but it's pretty much the first time as of last year I've actually purchased it & displayed. I do digital art too, but I'm trying to get it into the physical medium with stretch canvas and prints through the shop soon. Haven't gotten around to getting into it just yet. 

The statue is really well done, that was a nice find! I'm about to venture into my next first with this via my first Asian themed furniture purchase find. I lined up the pickup for next weekend or sooner depending. It's gonna go to storage unfortunately because it's in good condition, and I don't trust my cats around it being that way. But I'm planning to flip it to help go into auctions next or find some decent estate sales coming up this spring. 

Aside from that, my first decent finds at goodwill: 

a Taiwan R.O.C. porcelain vase around the period of the Great Cultural Revolution with Mao reign mark. Along with two Jingdezhen mid century vases (honestly you're onto something with millennial and mid-century so far 😂). 

I like what Goodwill does but they do have some minor and decent treasures that show up once in a while. There was a 4 panel Japanese Silk Triptych but it had water damage to two of the paintings. I'm kicking myself in the butt a bit about not grabbing that, but in replacement they had that Taiwan vase the next week at the same store. I hit up around 5 locations that are all around 30 minutes near me, so there's always something to browse to kill the time when it happens. 

The piece looks marvelous btw! That was a good buy!

@sharonp I would've picked up that plate myself. It's style is cutthroat stunning, but elegantly flourished. I can see that being relevant for a while too. If I had to guess now that I've been around the block once a bit with reignmarks, title marks and artist names, I feel that the way the mark is applied on the front, it's more of an artists name/signature mark than it is a title per how it's written in the box. That would be a keeper for me either way. 

I picked up this piece at a Goodwill recently and connected with the artist to validate it as their work. The name is Taguchi, which is a Japanese surname and means " The mouth of the Rice Paddy". He's an accredited pottery artist out of Philadelphia qho ran/taught at The Clay Studio back between 2007~2012 where he made this bowl. He noted it was a demonstration piece as he doesn't sign his work otherwise. A neat keeper for something that holds a lot of east Asian value. I like the piece but I have it listed. Just a cool moment I had with modern Asian art and artists. 

The Qing bowl is a nice introduction piece to the collection setup for older wares. I'm still waiting to find my first with that direction soon, but we'll see how time goes! 

That plate is awesome looking! The colors with the characterization makes that piece lively! It almost fits in a collection of its own degree to me. It's personally not my preferred style, but I can definitely appreciate the work on that one. 

A Claire de Lune 7” vase I bought four years ago at a Goodwill in Pennsylvania. It had 35 cents on the tag, but it was half price day, so 18 cents. Called Peter and he said it was not mark and period of course. Still got 700 on eBay. It was a nice first find. But I’d been selling US pottery for many years. I hate to think how many Chinese and Japanese items I’ve missed in the past nearly 40 years of buying and selling.

@centralpapottery that's lovely, nice find on this! Also I love Goodwill, one day you find something that's adequately priced, the next you find something that gives you a  %3888.88 ROI. 🤣

@pbarski93 Cool stuff! Love the elephants, are they teak? You have a great eye for styling your items. 

I love that your generation is bringing MCM back. I bought this 1950s Japanese lighter from an antique shop about 10 years ago. Still works!

@pbarski93 Your laquer cabinet with the applied beauties, which may be painted soapstone or ceramic is similar to a pedastal I have from the eighties and I have always liked the seventies/eighties vases with the black pendant trim, which for some reason always remind me of Edward Gorey illustrations.

@CentralPApottery That is a beautiful color and the best deal I've ever heard.

I figured I should throw in my first real piece.... I have been buying and selling antiques since I was about 17... so I don't have any of my very early ones.  But for Chinese pieces this is what sparked my interest in making Asian art my focus.

I was helping my friend move, this was at the bottom of a box of pans ( 😖 !!!!!!!), it had broken in half, and my buddy tossed it in the trash.  Asked if I could have it, glued it back together and have had it ever since.  It still stands out to me as one of the better export pieces I've seen.

Jeremy

@anglq425 I have a very similar vintage table lighter that lives in a corner cabinet, except mine is marked Ronson "Crown" Made in England and is very heavy, reminds me of I Love Lucy set.

@jbeer2121 Lovely piece and even better that it was free.

@anglq425 so these were actually apart of my grandfather's carving collection. He would carve wooden objects around in his life until he passed in 2012. They're split up amongst my aunts but we got several carvings he did including the elephants, a couple of Mallard carpet resting ducks (no feet and away from my moms house where they're at.), a boy sitting in a chair that's around a foot high and wide or so. He did have a great crafting eye and hand. 

MCM is definitely back in, and i think we're going to see the next generation of east Asian ware coming in after or soon after, global events aside. I had an old 1950's American camel click lighter similar to how this one works from my grandfather. I need to find replacement parts to fix it again, but the thing is chiq and stylish. Definitely looking for that this week now that I bring it up. That is stylish! I can see that doing well with a dresser top decor splash. 

Speaking of MCM, I found this Stiffel 1960's lamp in a good will a month ago thats waiting to go. It's got a crazy amount of interest, but still sitting because of the price tag. 

$15 to $350 isn't a bad flip at least when it goes. I coupled it with my apartments pairing set in this photo. 

@pbarski93 I received a Stiffel all brass tall candlestick style lamp as a Christmas present in nineteen-seventy-seven from my parents. I would call your lamp Traditional style, rather than Mid-Century Modern. It is always nice when young people appreciate items from their Grandparents, especially carvings.

@sharonp that helps a lot! I didn't consider this but I'm very naive with lamps still. 

Aye, we are a family of talented artists but problems drowned out the chance of success for each so far. It's memory in value is what's cherished and keeps it a priceless Heirloom.