The specialist guide to Antique Chinese Furniture Antiker Chinesischer Möbel muebles chinos antiguos mobilia cinese antica

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 facilities. These are both essentially the same piece but restored in a different […]

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A few interesting examples and baselines which can be used when making an assessment of quality. You will need to click each photo to see the enlarged verion and associated comments. 
Poor to low quality
This piece speaks for itself. Particularly evident is fitting which uses the lowest quality of materials.

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 Chinese workers love to use the phrase ¨cha bu duo¨ (pronounced “Cha Boo Daul) which directly translates to ¨not very far off  (meaning approximately or roughly)¨ Unfortunately, in almost all case it usually works out to be not even close,  in otherwords,  ”cha tai duo”  (meaning way too far off).   Workers see no need for exact […]

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A simple comparison

Comparison price shopping is common, in order to locate the best deal. A particular television model may be priced at $200 dollars at one store but found on elsewhere on sale for $180 (a full $20 less) by the savvy shopper. Sure, pre and post sales service may differ slightly per retailer, […]

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Having just returned from the Shanghai furniture show, here are my impressions of the Ningbo/Shanghai factories: 
Woods  - (minus)
The southern woods are definitely a poor substitute for the better ones from the North. One easy way to clearly feel the difference is to pick up one of those tall swoop-topped wooden stools that everyone sells. The […]

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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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