The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. » Home decor & accessories

Hot Seller: Chinese paper and silk wire lanterns

Roger — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:13:20 +0000

Chinese wire lanterns seem to do well. In checking over our web analytics, I noticed we get quite a lot of hits for wire lanterns. Regular incoming request and price checks for them, confirm this is indeed the case. Whats not to like about them? They are cute, colorful, inexpensive and in addition to being functional, they make great impulse buys for any shop.

There also seems to be demand for them (hint hint retailers) as is evident by this blog post, as well as this one.

Graham and Green does a very nice job in displaying these wire lanterns

The larger ones range from 60 to 80 centimeters high while the smaller ones are as small as just 20 cm high.

By the way, for a fascinating look at how some of the lanterns are made have a read of

Big Uncle, The Lantern Maker.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Hot Seller: Porcelain Garden Stools, everyone loves them!

Roger — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:53:47 +0000

Porcelain garden stools continue to remain extremely popular. They seem to add a nice touch to either the living room or the garden which makes them quite versatile. And there is quite a lot of variety in styles. Which may explain why they are selling so well out on the web. They were even featured in Elle Decor. There is also quite a lot of buzz on the design blogs on this topic as well including one amusing post entitled Are we over garden stools ? on a witty blog which describes itself as porn for decor addicts (love it!). On commenter on the post has the following to say about garden stools:

Garden stools are like bentwood dining chairs, Oriental rugs, tansu chests, club chairs, those plain swing-arm lamps Billy Baldwin loved, and large mirrors over fireplaces. They can be abused, and they can go through phases of being overly much in one’s face — but they’re never truly OUT.

A common question amongst buyers is how to distinguish between the various offerings out there on different websites. Stools break down into three categories:

Antique/Vintage
Hand made (new)
Mass produced (New)

Antique/Vintage

The ACF China stools (see pictures below) fall into this category. These tend to show some minor wear and tear. They are often heavier well as a bit more ornate with more attention to detail. Its not uncommon for them to have a bit of a washed out quality to them. Obviously these are the more expensive of the three kinds.

Hand made

The deep Jade Green Openwork Square Garden Stools at Gumps are good examples of this. Ornate, attractive and with their own texture. You can almost imagining them “aging into vintage” in a few years. Moderately priced, these stools will not be mistaken for Target bargains. Also over at one of our favorite design sites apartmenttherapy.com they are talking about Using Chinese Elements: Wisteria Living.

Mass produced

Style court’s colorful Juicy Decor fall into this category. Less expensive then Vintage or hand-made, thats not to say they do not make excellent additions to any space as Turquoise Chic points out about the ones she saw at the Mondrian Scottsdale . I love the manner in which Style court, describes her local shops as selling “Ceramic garden stools, above, come in luscious mouth-watering colors. “Juicy Decor,” she calls it…

Then there is coco cozy’s rundown on garden stools as well as anther great rundown on Apartment Therapy. So the next question is, where can you buy them? Here’s a brief rundown:

If you are importer, shop, wholesaler or retailer:

ACF China of course!

If you are an individual buyer looking for your home:

At present they are selling at quite a number of stores both online and off, including Mecox Gardens with their Lime Green Ceramic Garden Stools, Turquoise Stool, and Teal Side Table.

Gumps is selling Jade Green Openwork Square Garden Stools (which we carry also). They have Black Garden Stools as well. If you want to try some of these out,in fact they come in a rage of colors with silver, gold and white also being quite popular at the moment.

Red River Trading Co has some nice green ones also.
William Sonoma Home - Decorative Porcelain Garden Seat (thanks to coco cozy)

Hot Seller: Chinese Calligraphy Brushes

Roger — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:52:14 +0000

Chinese horse hair calligraphy brushes seem to be a hot seller recently. Actually, they have been doing well for quite some time now. We get quite a number of requests for them, particularly from smaller shops, boutiques and designers. They make great accessory items which fit with a range of decorating styles – and depending on how they are displayed, can be seen either as “exotic,” “world traveler,” or simply “oriental.” They are small enough to ship express and inexpensive enough to be impulse buys (while thinking about larger purchases). Whats not to like about them? They come in a range of materials from carved green jade, carved stone, pearl, bone handle, bamboo, glass beads or Cloisonne.

Sidenote: Have a quick look at this video of Chinese water graffiti which I found on Reuben Miller’s blog. Pretty cool actually and yes, some of the larger brushes do get used for this in fact. Every time I go to Jing Shan park in Beijing there is always someone doing this.

Like these brushes? Head over to our Home decor reference catalog for wholesalers to get some for yourself.

These are of course reproductions… One customer in France had an excellent idea on how to increase value (and add a nice touch as well). He requested we have correctly size boxes made for them.

Material Girls Blog noticed a great way to display them on the M Design website (which by the way, has some very impressive interiors). Had not thought of hanging them before….

Stylecourt, always hot on the heels of any trend, has some nice ideas for displaying calligraphy brushes. Personally I prefer these iron ones over the standard wooden stands. Head over to their post entitled Visiting the Cote de Texas for a bit more.

* Photo by Byron Newland

A true work of art – The making of a Chinese lacquered room divider/chinoiserie screen

Jasmin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:30:46 +0000

Chinoiserie screens are always a favorite with interior designers and today, we give you a detailed glimpse into the workshop of an artist craftsmen and let you see the many steps required to create a perfect lacquer painting.

Note: The large versions of these photos are online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acf-china/2243528705/

The art of lacquer painting is a ancient one, originating in China thousands of years ago. In the Neolithic age (about 7,000 years ago), while cutting down trees, the precursors to Chinese people realized that the sap of the lacquer trees could be applied to walls, furniture and other objects, thus giving birth to primitive lacquer art. Painting with lacquer is a meticulous and time-consuming process which most people fail to realize or appreciate. It is a very meticulous labor of love to create a lacquer painting and the process can take at least several weeks or in the case of a series of panels, more then several months to complete. Lacquer paintings & screen panels are traditionally created in three styles which correlate to the color of the paintings background:

Gold leaf
Deep black
Vermilion.

There are other exceptions such as silver background but these are less uncommon.

Step one: Preparing the surface.

Like an artist preparing a canvas, the process is very similar only in this case the painting is done on wood. Normally solid wood is NOT the best choice for these and most vendors will use “plywood” which is less likely to expand or contract (any cracks would ruin the painting). First, a piece of wood is prepared by sanding.
The board is covered with a piece of fine white muslin cloth which is glue down on the board. This fabric serves a duel purpose in that should the wood crack or expand the cloth wrapped around it will remain relatively stable (and thus the fragile lacquer will not crack or become damaged).
Then the cloth is brushed a layer of “nizi” – a kind of Gesso or base adhesive and is then left for the adhesive to air dry for a short period of time.
This covering of adhesive is then sanded smooth to eliminate any bumps or ridges.
This entire process is then repeated so that there is at least several coats of sanded “nizi.

Step two: Preparing the black base surface.

next step brushed a coat of a specially prepared binding agent made from red lacquer flakes which are dissolved in thinner. This binding agent helps the next coat of black lacquer to soak into the cloth below.
After a thin coat its left to air dry for a short period of time.
Then brushed on top with a coat of black lacquer at least two times and left to dry completely – normally about three days depending on the weather and humidity.

Step three: Laying down the gold leaf.

Extremely thin square sheets of gold-leaf tissue (or im some cases silver) placed over-top of the black lacquer and affixed with glue. Generally the final painting will occur over TOP of the gold leaf. This is what creates the vivid yet subtle color effect you can see on the end painting.
If desired, these thin sheets of gold leaf can be wrinkled slightly when they are applied which achieves an aged effect small bits of the black underneath will then show through when it is sanded one last time with a sheet of extra fine sandpaper.
This is again left to air dry for a short period of time.

Step 4: Tracing out the design.

First, a traditional design is selected often from a painting or book.
Then a sheet of white tracing paper with a pattern with small holes (basically these are the tracing lines) in the paper is tacked/taped onto the panel.
A special fine talcum like powder is evenly sprinkled over the tracing paper which then sifts through the holes in the tracing paper onto the surface underneath.
When the tracing paper, is then removed the patterns remain on the panel seen as a series of fine dotted outlines.

Step 5: The painting

Now we start painting. The painter uses white lacquer to rough out the outlines of the forms in the painting.
The colors are applied one by one, layer upon layer until the tones are built up.
After the painting has dried, the artist will brush over it with a clear coat of lacquer . This process leaves a brilliant surface on a painting and also adds additional protection.

Finished! The end result is a beautiful work of art!

If you want to learn more check out this article on Chinese Mosaic Lacquer Paintings