Antique Furniture, Old Chairs
While most of todays furniture is designed to be stylish, there was a time when a special significance and meaning was attached to the furniture that people used. The large chair that you see in the image was seen near a temple in South East Asia. The heavy chair is made of solid wood, the back of the chair has a large wood carved dragon. The meaning of the dragon in Chinese and Thai tradition has been one of a saviour, a keeper of good health and safety. If you look at the over all dimensions of this old chair and also consider the thickness of the wood, an environmentalist might consider it to be a waste of wood but - religion and tradition go beyond climate and environment. Royal furniture in Rome and Britain also boast of tremendous carvings beauty, lion heads, snakes, and even mermaids can be seen carved on some of them. The dragon chair seen here could probably seat two to three adults but, every temple has just one senior monk and he sits on this chair when giving sermons. A good place to find some antique furniture styles, is to visit the older temples in places like Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal. With Burma opening it's doors to the rest of the world, it is believed that Burma will be a hot tourist destinations for travellers from the Americas and Europe. There are not many skilled wood carvers and craftsmen actively working even in Asian countries. The prohibitive cost of heavy wood furniture has resulted in cheaper furniture being made in highly mechanized factories.
Stained Glass Chairs
You will find magnificent stained glass window panes and partitions in some famous churches and cathedrals. It is not clear how and when this art travelled to Asia but, here is a fine example of how Asian craftsmen have mastered the art of crafting stained glass. These stained glass chairs are part of a complete set of glass chairs and dinner table, gorgoeus and amazing. We actually visited the workshop where these stained glass furniture pieces were being made. The antique stained glass chair back, is not a simple painting job on a piece of glass. An artist draws the design on a temporary backing sheet, this is the first step in making the stained glass panel. Small pieces of colored glass are precisely cut to fit various portions of the design, each piece is filed on the edges to take away any jagged edges. The colored pieces of cut glass are then skilfully put together and fixed tightly next to each other. What you then have is a stained glass pane, this is mounted on the back of each unique chair. The stained glass objects made at this workshop were not just chairs, we saw some stunning room partitions and even window panels being intricately put together. This reminded us of the colorful blown glass artisans in Mexico. In the case of he colorful Mexican glass, color elements are piped into the single piece of glass as it is blown and rolled into shape.
Heavy Carved Chair
A heavy antique chair, this carved wood chair would be worth a small fortune today. Given the fact that such antique chairs are hardly being made today it was no surprise to hear that, the place that displayed this chair had NO intention of selling it. What did surprise us however is the fact that, visitors to the place were allowed to freely sit on these classic carved pieces of furniture. Every single part of this heavy wood chair has an intricate hand carving, something that is rarely seen in todays furniture. The center back of the chair, has a pretty inlay of mother of pearl. There are places in countries like Thailand where entire sofa sets are made with such intricate designs, a substantial part of the work is today down by mechanized equipment but, the cost of the furniture is very high. A heavy carved sofa set with good wood and good craftsmanship could sell for as much as 10,000 U.S$ to 25,000 U.S$. Surprisingly, most of the carved furniture made in these workshops is exported to various European countries. We have come across quite a few Europeans who actually live in countries like Thailand and Indonesia, scout for old furniture and buy them. They then work with local craftsmanship to repair and refurbish the old style furniture. The upgraded furniture is then exported to waiting buyers in Switzerland, German, Italy and France. Lots of work involved in procuring, repairing and shipping such bulky furniture but, the returns would surely be very lucrative.
There Is More To See
Our journey into the amazing world of old and antique furniture does not end here. We have much more to show you and invite you to the complete report on classic furniture. We would like to clarify that, we do not have any business dealings in furniture or related products. Our main business is related to custom made jewelry, the general information we provide is meant to share our experiences with you. Check out some more antique style furniture and old chairs at http://www.leisure.food-recipe-cooking.com/unique-antique-chairs-furniture-fcr-01.htm