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| Why do people take the Shanghai Mahogany Furniture as special art piece? |
| The Shanghai Mahogany Furniture is the one of an archaic style meticulously worked out by using the broad-leaved and fragrant mahogany imported from Southeast Asian countries as raw material and is an engraved art-piece as well. Shaped in a classical yet unaffected pattern it characterizes an exquisite and elegant technique in engraving, a strict yet reasonable structure and brightly darkish lacquer. To suggest a quaint yet exciting effect the decorative patterns and engravings for sticks of furniture are all done by hand. To put the parts ingeniously and firmly together carpenters resorted to score of traditional dove-tail joints while the lacquer used for varnishing is the famous natural lacquer produced in China. Every stick of furniture has to be lacquered and rubbed repeatedly taken every worker at least half a month's work to turn it ont a smoothly and brightly looking and up-to-standard stick of furniture. In the meanwhile, enough attention must be paid to the perfect combination of traditional art-form of the furniture with the modern life contents, making it not only to have a comfortable and practical usability but also a pleasing effect for appreciation. Hence the Shanghai Mahogany Furniture has become a special art-piece appreciated by customers both at home and from abroad. |
| Could you brief something about the Gu Embroidery in Shanghai? |
The Gu Embroidery was originated in an official's family named Gu in Songjiang County of Shanghai area during the reign of Emperor Jiajing (1522- 1565) of the Ming Dynasty, hence the name of the embroidery. Succeeded and developed the embroidery tradition handed down from the Tang and Song periods the embroidery of the Gu Family has integrated the theory of Chinese painting and the embroidery technique into one wholeness and so it is reputed as "painting embroidery."
At the end of the Ming Dynasty Gu Lanyu, an offspring of the Gu Family set up booths for the training of disciples, passing on the technique. Later on, women in Shanghai area made their living by doing the Gu Embroidery and by and by it came to be rife among the country folk. Taking famous paintings as blueprints the stitches of the Gu Embroidery were very fine, delicate and quaint. Resorting to very fine silk divided into one half or thirds or even to one tenth the skill of stitch and use of thread comes to such a high level that one is unable to discern any trace of the stitches on the embroidery. Furthermore, abiding strictly by the principle of making up colors in line with the original it has brought the light and shade to such an exquisite degree as a peerless natural whole, which, if put together with the original, makes one unable to tell the original from the embroidered piece.
So far, the embroidery works of flowers, birds, fish and even insects have all taken over the traditional technique of the Gu Embroidery. Either wool or silk pieces are very thick, solid and of fine quality, looking lifelike and full of vitality, hence greatly appreciated by visitors both at home and abroad. |
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