There are two main categories of traditional handicrafts. The first category is high-end products (that is, special crafts mentioned later). It has the value of viewing and collecting. The first category is universal practical products that directly serve people's lives. In feudal society, high-end crafts have long been the object of a few people to accumulate wealth, and antiquities are regarded as "antique" collections.
According to the "Checking and Family Property List", the Hejia jade library has "13 jade tripods, two feet and five inches tall, 20 jade chimes, 132 handles of jade ruyi, and 1,106 handles of jade ruyi... …, the above is priced at seven million two silver”. Antiques include "Twenty Bronze Bottles, Twenty-one Bronze Tripods, Thirty-three Bronze Seas..., the total price is 8 million two silver" and so on. Since the Republic of China, although practical handicrafts have tended to shrink, the demand for high-end handicrafts by wealthy landlords and upstarts has not decreased at all.
Therefore, the value of handicrafts is obviously biased towards high-end special crafts. The obvious rise in economic value and collection value makes practical value insignificant. The abnormal development of Suzhou arts and crafts from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China is an example. At that time, mahogany furniture, jade carvings, jewelry, sandalwood fans, and embroidery were the bulk, which were basically special crafts.