Market meltdown leaves antiques dealers on the shelf

China's collectibles' market hit a high in 2011, but then the bubble burst, leaving private vendors and craftsman desperate for sales. Zhao Xu reports from Beijing and Zhang Kun from Suzhou

Having lived off his "feathery art" for more than four decades, attending to the needs of a select band of customers from his private workshop, Xiao Guangchun has finally decided to open a public work space in a business center in east Beijing.

The craft the 60-something craftsman diligently learned, painstakingly practiced and now jealously guards from everyone except his children is called diancui, which means "dipping blue", and involves applying kingfisher feathers to the surfaces of gold jewelry.