Nathan Lauer scours the globe for pieces rare and beautiful.

Nathan Lauer is an antiques sleuth.

Armed with a near-photographic memory, keen instincts and trusted sources, he scours the dirt markets of Beijing and the byways of Southeast Asia in search of treasures for his new shop, Mandalay Road Trading Company.

Comfortably housed on Ericksen Avenue, the shop grew from several Lauer family passions: history, travel and antiques.

Lauer and his parents opened a shop on Pioneer Square in 2003. Although that space was filled with beautiful pieces, few people saw them because of its location – underneath a bakery.

“It was kind of frustrating,” Lauer said. “Online, we did a lot of high-end collectibles worldwide. What differentiates us is we delve a little more in Southeast Asia components.”

The new shop is a lot easier to find on Bainbridge, where Lauer believes they will do well. They include sculptures, bronzes and furniture – big and small – ceramics and jewelry.

Everything arrives in crates that he then must unpack, inspect and make look its best.

This collection is extensive, from the statues in the front of the property to the 50-piece paneled bed and the small opium weights inside the shop. The “Museum Room” contains “really unusual pieces,” Lauer said, worthy of museum display.

A recent shipment brought 13 crates with some 5,700 pounds of antiques, necessitating long nights from Lauer.

He estimates that 90 percent of what he buys requires some repairs.

Arms must be reattached, shelves may need supports and original finishes await revealing. Some shipments arrive with forklift holes – incurred on the receiving end – and everything needs cleaning. This is accomplished with gentle elbow grease and “mostly just lemon oil.”

Lauer is a passionate spokesman for the family business. The thrill of the hunt and the study of the treasures he finds bring his strengths to the forefront.

With a Ph.D. in history, Lauer’s father was a professor and a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service; his mother was an educator and mental health expert. They always collected antiques.

As a young boy, Nathan and his family called Taiwan home; they added two years in Burma; and opened the American consulate in Shanghai in 1980 after China’s Cultural Revolution.

And those are merely some of the high points. Every place he went left an impression on young Nathan.

After some rebellious years, getting through Albright College in Pennsylvania and a decade and a half as a bartender, Lauer has found his place in the world.

Although he thought he was distancing himself from the academic branch of the family tree, it turned out to be his calling all along. He simply had to do it his way.

During his last two years in college, he did an independent research project on the Opium Wars.

“A lot of it was really arcane stuff, which is good for this type of work,” he said.

Lauer’s parents, now retired, moved to Bainbridge in 1991. Once the three joined forces, the pieces for their antiques business fell into place.

“I’m here for backup,” Lauer said. “My mom is the perfect boss. She trusts my instincts. She knows the research I’ve done, my history background. I avoid the bookkeeping as much as possible. All the buying is mine, except for little stuff (my parents) find on trips.”

They chose Bainbridge for their new location because it has “a larger population density-wise that can appreciate these things,” Lauer said. Bainbridge “is a far more accepting community of third cultures and traveling. This is a huge emotional and intellectual comfort factor.

“It’s such a wonderful mix. (It’s) the small town that’s not a small town.”

The collector

Lauer has snapped up statues that were going to be knocked over for a paved road and artifacts fished from rivers.

“In Southeast Asia, my sources are very trustworthy in terms of what they know,” he said. “China is a little more problematic. You have to have the basic instinct (if) it’s old or not and what it is going to be worth business-wise.”

Why are these items even available?

“During the Cultural Revolution, the old was not considered good at all. They knocked the faces off all the Buddhas, some 1,000 years old,” Lauer said. “In terms of the rapid growth China is experiencing, there’s an awful lot of things out there. Lots of it is in really bad shape.”

That’s where research comes in. For example, natural wood grain, hardware, the lacquer on a piece and whether nails were used to hold it together offer clues to a table or chest’s age and origin. Ceramics hold their cards closer to the vest.

Here, trained eyes and experienced minds must look at bubbles and colors on the piece to decide its authenticity and age.

If his stacks of books and clippings don’t help, Lauer contacts experts in the field.

While traveling, Lauer picks up pieces “for fun and education.” When he’s unsure about something, he takes pictures of it and delves some more, putting off his purchasing decision. Often he’s right without exactly knowing why at the time.

“The big trick to this business is everyone will make a mistake, (even) the major auction houses and museums,” he said. “The trick is when there’s a doubt for me, I set it aside for research.”

Whether it’s a mid-19th century embroidered imperial rank badge, a lacquered Buddha or a Vietnamese signal cannon from the early 16th/early 17th century, he loves it all and his shop reflects that with an array of sizes and prices.

“If I find something neat, I have something neat,” he said. “Age doesn’t matter.”

Some ask if Lauer minds parting with the antiques he painstakingly procures.

“Every time something goes, it gives me the opportunity to get something else,” Lauer said. “When I need to see something permanent, I go to my parents’ house.”

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Antique trade

Mandalay Road Trading Company is located at 520 Ericksen Ave. Specialties include antique sculptures, ceramics, lacquerware, bronzes, furniture and jewelry. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday. Contact owner Nathan Lauer at 855-0850 or nathan@mandalayroadtrading.com; see www.mandalayroadtrading.com to view some of the collection.