Ming's on her mind

A Honolulu woman collected about 300 pieces of the sought-after jewelry

There's a chance Linda Lee might have gone through adulthood spared from the collector's bug.

"Maybe I collected stamps for a day, or coins for a day. My brothers collected stuff, but I never did."

Until she saw one of Ming's sterling silver and ivory bamboo earrings during a visit to the Hawaii All-Collectors Show about 10 years ago.

"My mom had all that Ming's jewelry with the pearls and jade, but I never cared for it. This piece was more sculptural. I had to get it.

"When I decide to do something I always have to learn all about it. After the show I looked at the list of all the vendors who carried Ming's and started calling them."

Out of that came friendships with people in positions to show her examples of Ming's jewelry from the 1940s through 1999, when the last store closed. She was also able to meet surviving members of Ming's founder Wook Moon's family, and recalled visiting the shop on Fort Street Mall when she was a little girl.

"You would go inside and it would be dark, and you would see Mrs. Moon in a cheong-sam. I always remembered being a little scared because it was so dark and quiet and there was all this antique Chinese rosewood furniture.

"I wasn't interested in jewelry at the time, but being on Fort Street Mall meant a lot of people collected this jewelry. Mr. Moon offered no-interest layaway, so that's how a lot of downtown secretaries, not highly paid women, were able to buy something."

In her search for vintage Ming's jewelry, Lee placed classified ads in newspapers, which turned up much of the more popular, generic pieces.

"All the Japanese ladies had the woodrose. I don't know why."

Although Lee had little attraction to the woodroses, she felt obligated to buy "a ton" of the sterling and ivory earrings and brooches just because the women "were so nice and they really wanted to sell.

"I paid a fair price, so never got a deal, but I always thought I could trade those woodroses for something I really wanted. What's ironic is, now I can't find woodroses."

LEE'S TIMING could not have been better. When she started collecting in 1997, eBay was just another Internet start-up company and she said, "Nobody else was looking for Ming's."

Today there is a lot of competition for pieces that typically sell for more than $300. Rare ivory designs by artists like Isami Doi, enlisted by Moon, who carved the pieces himself, might go for $2,000.

Luckily, there are people across te nation willing to part with pieces that came home with soldiers during World War II, tourists of the 1950s and '60s, and those who shopped at Ming's stores from San Francisco to Miami.

Lee, a pension consultant in her other life, will be offering casual appraisals during the Hawaii All-Collectors Show this weekend, but cautions, "This is not an appraisal for insurance purposes. If you need paperwork, you need to get a professional to do it, but I can tell you if your piece is a Ming's and about what it's worth.

"This is just for fun, if you're wondering what you have in your jewelry box that you didn't buy. If you have ivory pikake or plumeria it might be treasure, or it might be Chinatown ivory."

The latter represents cheap imitations that flooded the market after 1949, which do not have the cachet of Ming's ivory carvings, noted for delicacy and detail. Through her efforts, Lee is hoping to honor the legacy of an artist whose eclectic creations brought joy to generations of women.

"Mr. Moon created Hawaiian flowers, Chinese flowers, he did a lot of leaves and he rarely did a flat leaf. His plumerias have a definite curve that make them look natural.

"He also painted a lot of the ivory pieces himself. I can tell which ones he did because of the way he blended the colors."

It was obvious that he spent time studying nature, which raises a question about his anthuriums.

"Anthuriums grow with their noses down, but his earrings and brooches are made to be worn in a way where the nose points up," Lee said. "I would really have liked to know him. I would like to have asked why he did that."

AS WITH MOST collecting, it's often those pieces that no one bought, because of high price or unpopularity, that are so rare and desirable to future generations. At Ming's, these would be Uli Uli Player and Pahu Drummer pieces that would have sold in the 1940s for $14.40 in pin form and an additional $4.80 for matching sterling earrings.

They were the Hawaiian equivalents of Black Americana figures considered racist today. Whispering, Lee said, "Who would have bought that?

"And if you found the brooch, how do you get the earrings?" Because of their scarcity, a complete set would be worth about $2,000, Lee said. "I'm a firm believer in keeping sets together."

By 2000, she had amassed 300 pieces and realized she was out of control. Today, she's in divesting mode, aiming only "to keep what I really like."

And, she continues to search for Ming's elusive red hanging hibiscus. She's only seen one set of earrings, peddled by a gentleman with a small sack of earrings.

"It was the only find in the batch, but he wanted so much for it. My friend ended up buying it.

"I'm thinking that if Mr. Moon made an earring, he probably made a brooch," Lee mused. "But I actually think I'm kind of done, because I don't think I'll find that hibiscus."