Wrapped in Love – Chinese Minority Baby Carriers
Young Miao girls began learning embroidery around the age of eight or nine and one of the first and most important items they made were baby carriers for…
Journal
Peoples, deities and the objects they made: notes on the cultures behind the collection.
Chased in Precious Metal – Indian Silver Clad Furniture
Over 500 years ago Europeans first arrived to India to find a culture that did not widely utilize elevated furniture. When local artists were commissioned to create chairs…
Masters of Color – Late Edo Period Ukiyo-e Artists
A discussion of famous woodblock artists of the Utagawa school: Hiroshige, Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, each with distinct and diverse styles who represented, along with Yoshitsuya, the last ukiyo-e…
A Rug for Every Person – Tibetan Pile Carpets
Authentic antique Tibetan rugs are difficult to come by simply because very few remain. The saying, a rug for every person is believed to also imply that the…
Art in Bloom – Japanese Jubako and Fubako
Japanese lacquer works developed a distinct style emphasizing lyrical and elegant surface decorations used to decorate a wide variety of objects, including Buddhist artwork, writing boxes (fubako), altars,…
Stories
Lithography
Lithography is a printing method that utilizes the mutual repulsion of oil and water. The artist uses an oil based medium such as wax crayon to draw an…
Appreciating Gongshi: Part One – Early Standards and Scholar’s Rocks
During the Song dynasty, collecting Gongshi became an art form in and of itself. At that time, four attributes or standards were considered important in establishing the beauty…
Nature’s Alchemy – Petrified Wood
Petrified wood is a unique type of fossil formed when trees are buried underground for millions of years, turning them to stone. With decorative elements of both wood…
Cheers! – Kuba Ceremonial Wine Cups
The Kuba people of present day Democratic Republic of Congo are renowned for their decorative arts, which also extend to their palm wine cups. Elaborately carved in figurative…
Lost at Sea – Shipwreck Ceramics
In the last several decades, the ocean floors in Southeast Asia have yielded a new category of sunken treasures – antique ceramics. Since ancient times cargo ships traveled…