Comments on: A quick look at some beautiful antique shanxi painted furniture in unrestored form

By: A wonderful old Shanxi armoire | Shimu Blog

A wonderful old Shanxi armoire | Shimu Blog — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:33:14 +0000

[...] were two vast warehouses specialising in the beautiful painted furniture of Shanxi province (see Roger Schwendemann’s blog for a very good article on these pieces), and it is quite possible that the cabinet shown here [...]

By: Beautiful colors still remain on this brightly painted fo kan family shrine from Gansu used for ancestor worship | The specialists guide to Chinese antiques

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 09:14:17 +0000

[...] the antiques world with James from UK based Shimu Chinese Furniture (who by the way also a fan of Shanxi painted furniture and has a very nicely developing blog on Chinese antiques here worth a look). Of course the [...]

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:19:03 +0000

The rolling and cracking in the lacquer occurs naturally over many years and can’t really be repaired. Actually it’s pretty hard to replicate so generally these are left “as is” as they are a good indicator of age. There are some workshops who can do it (generally in the south of china) but its difficult and even then, there is quite a difference between the fakes and the naturally occurring ones. Plus there are many connoisseurs of this type of cracking – its actually quite pretty. But the rest of the piece still must be carefully restored. The joinery and frame must be tightened, smaller damaged areas repaired, the missing hardware replaced and the finish very, very, very carefully cleaned using water and a very fine sandpaper.

By: Justin Liu

Justin Liu — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:52:45 +0000

Really nice blog. I’m glad I subscribed. How would you go about restoring something in this condition? Would you use a solvent to soften the lacquer and flatten it into place? Otherwise how do you get ride of the rolling and cracking in the front panel.