The specialist guide to Asian antiques and exotic home decor from the far east.

This enormous solid wood console (over two meters) which probably dates back to the Ming Dynasty, originally made its home in a temple in Shanxi province before being stumbled upon by us in the far off, dusty dirty corners of the antiques trade. Known in Chinese as a “Gong An,” or roughly a”temple table” the [...]

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Below is very short but useful post reprinted from Wikipedia time-lining the various Chinese Dynasties (Click on H for the history of the dynasty, and E for a table of its emperors (or other rulers).

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I get so backed up with blog posts, because there is so many interesting and fascinating things to see and talk about. And being detailed oriented, I really want to spend the time to talk about each item in detail, the history behind it, where it comes from and all the other details that make [...]

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(Click images to enlarge)
 Question:
A reputable local beijing based antique Chinese furniture dealer sold us this nice Chinese table. It cracked a few months after getting it.  He has his own shop to produce furniture as well as sell antiques. I am sending you 3 photos, 1 of each side of the table, and 1 [...]

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Old Shanghai furniture can be roughly broken down into three categories, which correspond to the stages of the city’s development as well as to the style of buildings in which the majority of the population resided. These started with the shikumen longtang, which dominated from the mid Nineteenth Century up until about 1920, through the [...]

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Teak wood (yóu mù 柚 木)
Click here to listen to Chinese

Latin: Tectona grandis (IE true teak).
African name: Baikiaea Plurijuga (Rhodesian Teak)
Other trade names: Burma teak, Rangoon teak, moulmein teak, gia thi, jati sak, kyun, mai sak and rosawa.

African teak wood trees and lumber

Teakwood is an average hardness wood from the Verbenaceae family, found in various [...]

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I was searching for some photos of Chinese wedding beds and Chinese canopy beds when this humorous page came up on Chris Johnson’s personal website entitled “How to Assemble an Antique Two Room Chinese Wedding Bed.” This along with his main Chinese Bed page is worth having a look at (The photos below are [...]

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Quick follow up, on a prior post about antique doors and antique door furniture. Was pokin around on Flickr again and noticed just how many great photos of old doors there ( along with a [...]

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Photos of these two cabinets have been floating around on our file server for quite a while and I have been meaning to put them up here as another excellent example of differences in quality between Chinese antique workshops and restoration as well as in Chinese Country Antique Furniture in general. These are [...]

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Chinese furniture is becoming more and more popular, surely about 50% of the decorated homes have an item one or the other Asian style. Before the 90’s Asian furniture used in western interiors was often of a abstract, cold, zen style. Mono-colored cabinets, without any curls. Often plain red or black lacquered. But in the [...]

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A large sheet of fabric (often a course, light cotton) is laid out on top of a flat even surface such as a large sheet of plywood or a tabletop. A even coating of “Nizi” – a kind of adhesive, is spread evenly over the surface of the material. The adhesive is then let [...]

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 I came across this in 2005 and have not seen anything like it again ever since.  At best, the painting has been retouched and at worst, the finish was completely new. The cabinet itself looks old though. Regardless, it would have made a great conversation piece in my living room…. While india has had the [...]

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ANTIQUE

Antique pieces are aged and usually must meet a minimum age before being considered an antique – generally 50 years or more. Should possess some degree of wear/tear due to time/age and use. Each piece is unusual and unique.

KNOWLEDGE: Requires a comprehensive historical understanding of periods, regions, and styles as well local handcraft construction techniques, [...]

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Here is another great example of “chabuduo.” Apparently the worker who put in the shelf though that chaobuduo really wouldn’t that big of a deal…

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