OUR COLLECTIONS

• Shamanic objects from the northern mountains (ritual scrolls, power swords…).
• Tribal textiles (baby carriers, scarves, blankets, skirts, wedding scarves, belts,…).
• Objects from the Central Highlands ethnic minorities.
• Functional objects for agriculture, hunting, cooking, weaving, building, etc.
• Antiques from the Viet Kinh majority people (Buddhist statues, ceramics, vintage water puppets, etc).
• Chimera Jewelry. One-of-a-kind pieces, assembled from tribal silver, archaeological beads, jade, and more.

All of our objects are -

• Vintage or antique
• Documented
• Guaranteed

THE HIGHEST OF STANDARDS

Documentation: All pieces are accompanied by an object-specific Fact Sheet: 500 to over 1000 words on ethnic origin & significance, geography, cultural context, purpose, age, materials, etc

Warranty: All pieces guaranteed to be as described.

Dissemination: Many pieces from the gallery's and Mark's collections have entered museum collections, including those of :

• Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
• American Museum of Natural History (NYC)
• Mingei Museum of International Art (California)
• Musee Du Quai Branly (Paris)
• Harvard, Brown, Yale and Boston Universities

Education: We have had “solo” dedicated exhibitions of our collections at :

• Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi - 2004
• National Fine Arts Museum of Vietnam - 2006
• East-West Center, Hawaii - 2007

Philanthropy

• Objects donated by 54 Traditions Gallery and auctioned by Operation Smile have funded facial surgery for almost 400 children.
• We are a Gold Sponsor of the HIWC Charity Bazaar.

CULTURAL AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

• Lectures on topics in tribal art or antiquities (at 54 Traditions Gallery or elsewhere).
• Guided Tours of the Museum of Ethnology or Museum of History (in English, French, or Vietnamese).
• “HMONG HOURS” – informal social discussions with rural Hmong women or elders.
• “SHAMAN HOURS” – discussions with practicing Taoist shamans (by special arrangement).
• Customized “field trips” to rarely-visited villages, (discussions with shamans, staying with families, etc).
• Consultation on identification and authenticity of cultural objects.

PERSONAL SERVICE

We are able to provide :

• Detailed Fact Sheets on all objects
• Shipping by air or sea
• Protective packaging
• Custom mounting of objects
• Custom travel bags
• Hotel or airport delivery
• Secure storage of items for short periods
• Information on customs regulations

• Private viewings: The gallery may be reserved for private viewing or private events.

• Off-site viewing: Under special circumstances, we can bring objects to a client’s hotel or office.

• Search: We will attempt to locate, even on short notice, particular tribal or antique objects.

GALLERY FOUNDERS

Nguyen Thi Nhung: Born in Hanoi in 1978, Nhung attended the National University for Linguistic Studies, majoring in French. After graduation, she began work for a French company for 6 months and then as a salesperson in a shop selling the material culture of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities. After 4 months, she opened her own shop, and soon opened a second shop. Much of her success was in the cultivating of excellent sources, especially in the northern and far northwestern sections of the country. She made frequent collecting trips to villages and the homes of people (both minority and Kinh) in isolated areas to do research and develop relationships.

Over time, her “eye” became one of the best in Hanoi, discerning the most extraordinary of the ordinary objects. In addition, she developed an expertise in the antiquities (of stone, clay, and bronze) encountered by rural people as they tilled new land and worked their fields. She emerged as the most important source of objects for Mark Rapoport as he built his very large collection of tribal objects. In August of 2004, she closed her shop and joined forces with Mark to found a company to present the tribal and antique objects in a sophisticated way, emphasizing the individual significance of each piece by: preparing and presenting the objects to the highest standards, and preparing an educational component for every piece.

Mark S. Rapoport, MD: Mark was born and raised in and around New York City. With the exception of eight years in Boston for his education, he lived in Manhattan for his entire life until moving to Hanoi.
As a medical student in 1969, he came to Viet Nam for two months as a volunteer medical worker. Although most of his work was in the hospital for Vietnamese civilians in Danang, he did some work in the villages of the ethnic minorities in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces. At this time, he acquired an interest in the material culture/art of those groups. The next year, he worked in Nigeria at the end of their civil war, and in the course of his time there acquired an interest in African art.

Over the next 25 years, he acquired a large collection, mostly of African objects. He has donated and sold thousands of pieces to individuals and institutions, including: Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Mingei International Museum in California, and the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts, and hundreds of pieces to the collections of Harvard, Boston, Yale and Brown Universities.

In 2001, Mark’s family moved to Hanoi. In the last 4 years, Mark has had put together a large collection of material culture and art from the 53 ethnic minorities in Vietnam, with an emphasis on the groups residing in the mountains north of Hanoi and those in the Central Highlands area. The Hanoi Museum of Ethnology mounted an exhibit of some 230 of Mark’s objects in 2002, its first-ever exhibition devoted to an individual collection.
 

.:  Home   .:  About 54 Traditions   .:  FAQ   .:  Contact us   .:  Search