“Is that a crack?” About once a week, I am asked this question. Some of the times, its about furniture which has been purchased elsewhere. Other times its about our own furniture. It might have been custom made or simply the customer purchased it from from a moving sale. Some pieces might have traveled the […]
Quality Concerns
Quality Control (QC), quality concerns
Buying from China – The customer is NOT always right.

You want white – they want black – and with a lot of pulling and tugging hopefully you’ll get gray. But is it really that simple? Does it really all boil down to just communication issues? Sometimes the buyer is just as much at fault for this situation as is the seller.
The Brutal Guide to buying Chinese Antiques on eBay

A practical nothing held back guide to purchasing “so called authentic Chinese antiques” on ebay. Read first – Don’t get ripped off.
Furniture Repairs: Improper restoration causes this “Old Shanghai” table-top to buckle and split

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 of the whole […]
Comparing apples to oranges – more on how to determine quality in Chinese antique furniture

A quality based comparison of the different restoration styles used when repairing Chinese antique furniture.
Determining quality in Chinese antique style furniture (What is Quality?)

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 version and associated comments. Poor to low quality This piece speaks for itself. Particularly evident is fitting which uses the lowest quality of materials. Carvings are shallow and […]