(VOVworld) - Situated at 75 Quan Thanh street is a small coffee shop named Art Coffee. Not being so crowded, the coffee shop like its name attracts artists especially those who are keen on antiques as many pictures by well-known painters and valuable antiques are on display there. The owner of the shop is Nguyen Truong, president of an antique club in Hanoi.

Art café looks like a living room covering an area of only 20 square meters with a lot of antiques displayed everywhere. The shop’s owner looks rather old in white hair but is still very enthusiastic whenever visitors come. For Truong, antiques are his great long-life passion. Truong said he opens the café not for business purpose but to make it a place for friends to meet and share their passion for antiques: "I am happy to be born in a family of artists. My father used to study at Indochina Fine Arts College, so my house was a place where many well-known painters came and exchanged about arts. This, to some extent, facilitated me with some knowledge about art".

One day, young Truong visited his uncle’s house and found an old plate, then discovered that was an old Celadon one. His uncle gave him that plate and that was the first antique that Truong had. Since then, he developed an ambition for studying about antiques. He has exerted tireless effort to go to many places in the country  to collect antiques. Ms. Le Minh Tam is an antique collector in Xa Dan, Hanoi: "There are antiques of different kinds of different periods from China’s      Qing Dynasty to Vietnam’s Ly, Tran and Le dynasties at the café. Each antique has historical information in it, so I come here to learn more about that".

Coming to Art Café, customers have chance to lose  themselves  in different historical periods in each antique displayed in the café. Many are even attracted by the owner’s interesting stories about the origin of the antiques such as a bowl of Le and Tran dynasty he bought from Thailand or an incense burner of Mac dynasty that Truong got by chance: "I had heard about that incense burner which belonged to an old man in the Old Quarter and offered to buy it for 5 years but that man refused. Unexpectedly, on a winter day in 1982 the old man called me and said now that he was too old, so he sold it to me. I have kept that antique since then as it is a souvenir for me".

Truong said he displayed all the antiques at the café so that people can learn more about cultural and historical quintessence of different time. As he said each antique is a bridge linking between different generations.

To Tuan