Buying from Real Rare Antiques: Questions and Answers

Buying a piece is simple:

1. Open the piece you are interested in.
2. Press Request price and send the short inquiry form. The piece is attached to your message automatically.
3. We reply by email with the price, extra photographs if you wish, and a shipping quote to your country.
4. You pay by bank transfer, card or cryptocurrency.
5. We ship by fully insured, express, tracked delivery, usually within 3–5 business days of payment.

You can also ask about several pieces in one inquiry, or write to us through the contact page.

For some pieces we accept offers. Send your offer through the inquiry form on the piece's page and we will reply personally.

Yes. Send an inquiry from the piece's page (or through the contact page) and we will reply with our bank details. Once your payment is received, the piece is usually shipped within 3–5 business days.

We accept a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Dash, Zcash, Monero and Decred.

Mention your preferred currency when you send your inquiry and we will send you the payment details.

Once your payment is confirmed, we usually ship the piece within 3–5 business days.

We ship by express courier, and delivery usually takes 3–7 business days, unless customs in your country delay it.

When the piece is dispatched, we email you to confirm, with the name of the carrier and the tracking number.

Because moving antique pieces from one country to another is costly, we do not offer refunds, returns or exchanges. All sales are final.

Pieces are sold as seen. Before you buy, please read the description, study the photographs and ask us anything you wish to know. You are welcome to involve an expert of your choice. By agreeing to buy a piece, you confirm that you have done so.

We stand behind our pieces, and we examine each one carefully before we list it.

We date each piece we offer by reading everything about it together: the form, the body and the way the foot is finished, the glaze, the painting and any mark. Each of these changed over the centuries, and a date is only secure when they all agree. A mark alone never dates a piece, because potters copied earlier marks for hundreds of years.

Our guide to signs of age explains what we look for. For marks, see Chinese porcelain marks.

Yes. When you send the Request price form from a piece, we reply by email with the price. We are glad to send further photographs on request, including the base, the mark and any area you would like to see more closely. Pieces are sold as seen, so please study the photographs and ask us anything you wish to know before you buy.

It means the piece carries that reign mark: a bowl "with a Xuande mark" has the Xuande reign mark written on it. The phrase describes the writing on the piece. It is not a guarantee of date, because later potters often used the marks of earlier reigns. Our guide to Chinese porcelain marks explains how a mark is read alongside the piece.

Yes. You are welcome to seek an independent opinion before you commit. Share our photographs with a specialist of your choice, and we will gladly send any further photographs they ask for. Please do this before paying, as all sales are final.

Every piece is carefully packed to protect it in transit and sent by express courier with tracking. Shipping is fully insured until the piece reaches you.

Import duty, taxes and any customs charges are the buyer's responsibility. They depend on the country you are importing into, and some countries treat antiques differently from new goods. Your local customs office can tell you what applies before you buy.

Porcelain is not a material covered by CITES, the convention on trade in endangered species, so a porcelain piece needs no CITES permit. Some countries do restrict the export of antiques, and where export documents are required, we arrange them. If your own country has rules on importing antiques, please check them before you buy.