Signature Move
A keen collector of rare books and artifacts since childhood, Vicky Xu tells of becoming fascinated by the autographs of historical figures and why they are excellent investments
Vicky Xu was still in school when she started collecting rare books. “My father was a teacher of Chinese history, so I learned a lot from him from when I was very young,” Xu says. “I was with my father travelling to Xian when I collected my first old book. It was a vintage copy of one of the four big famous novels in China, called Shuihu Zhuan (Water Margin), and my father helped me choose it. I was 12 years old.”
Xu’s interest in all things historical grew stronger with age, and she began collecting art, antiques and finally autographs, which have since become her main area of interest.
Although Xu began collecting autographs as a hobby, she realised last year that she could turn her pastime into a business. “Autographs provide worthwhile investment value,” Xu explains. “According to Autograph Index, the value of memorabilia appreciates in double digits per annum. Some rare pieces even see triple-digit growth.”
So she set up Areteos Historical Concept and began dealing in autographs through temporary exhibitions of valuable autographs in New York, London and Dubai. Now, ready to take her business to the next level, she has opened a permanent exhibition space on Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road. She chose the city because “it is very cosmopolitan. It has large numbers of Chinese, Asian, American and European visitors and the collectors here are very sophisticated. It was an obvious place to start.”
Xu opened the exhibition space in September this year with a carefully curated selection of some of the most valuable squiggles in her collection. Xu is a fan of old black and white movies and the autographs on show include Audrey Hepburn’s and the James Bond Collection—the signatures of six actors who have played 007.
The star of the show is the Prime Ministers of the UK Collection, which features the autographs of every one of the PMS in history.
“It took just over five years to research, track down, preserve and work with our Us-based curator to design the UK Prime Ministers Collection,” Xu says. “When I started, I wasn’t sure it could actually be done, as no one, not even a museum, had accomplished it. The rarest of these autographs to find was William Petty’s. He was not well liked in the UK because of his promoting of free trade between Britain and North America. Due to his unpopularity at the time, no one cared to preserve material on him, making his signature very scarce.”
The collection also includes Gabrielle Coco Chanel’s signature, which is also very rare. “Coco used to destroy all her correspondence in her lifetime,” Xu explains. “If you could find a signature of hers, it would often be just Coco Chanel or even simply Coco. It is very rare to find her full-name autograph. The majority of Coco’s surviving signatures have been archived by Chanel in-house, so this signature is extremely rare.”
Undeterred by the time and effort it took to assemble the UK prime ministers, Xu has begun work on the 45 Presidents of the United States Collection, and even a collection of the signatures of the presidents of China. “The China one is most difficult. In China, the culture is not to sign documents. It’s to use a stamp or even a fingerprint, so the signatures are very rare,” Xu says.
There are only 12 items and collections on show at Areteos Historical Concept on Hollywood Road at present, but collectors can be confident of plenty more to pique their interest in future. “We have more than 200 collections and we’ll change the theme of the exhibition every two months, so stay tuned,” says Xu. Areteos Historical Concept is located on 1 Hollywood Road, Central