After weeks of preparation and more than a few late nights to get everything in place our new showroom at Greengates in West Yorkshire opened to the public on the 27^th April, with the Lord Mayor of Bradford attending to officially cut the ribbon. Part of the converted Albion Mill complex, the space offers around 3,000 square foot on one level to show off our beautiful furniture and Chinese antiques, with a similar amount of space in the basement for warehousing.

The opening weekend started with a champagne reception on the Friday evening, attended by many of our local customers. Many thanks to all those who joined us for this pre-launch event – it was great to see so many familiar faces from over the years as well as a few new ones who had not visited us before in our previous premises. It was also lovely to hear so many positive comments about the fantastic new setting for our collection.

The Lord Mayor arrived on Saturday afternoon to cut a red ribbon (as well as a ‘Shimu’ cake) and declare the new showroom open. He and the Lady Mayoress also kindly judged our competition for children from two of the local schools, Thorpe and Parkland Primaries, many of whom also came with their parents for the opening. The children had drawn or created models of animals that are important in Chinese culture, and it was a hard task to choose from the many brightly coloured dragons, fish, snakes and other animals that adorned our walls over the opening weekend. Congratulations again to the winners Alicia Pollard, Ola Durlik and Kitty Townend.

The space here in our new showroom, with its industrial heritage, has wonderful high ceilings and provides a light, airy environment for our furniture. While we were sad to leave our premises in Saltaire after five great years, we are really excited about our new home now that we are fully up and running. The much larger space – over twice as much for display than we had in Saltaire – means that we can now show much of our handcrafted furniture in room settings to better show how it would fit into a modern home. We can also show far more of our current antique collection, rather than having the vast majority of pieces packed up in our warehouse.

Also key to us choosing Albion Mills as our new home was the fact that were able to bring our showroom and warehouse under one roof. This has huge advantages for us in terms of logistics but also means we can offer a better service to customers visiting the showroom – particularly the large numbers who make a significant journey to see us. Now if a particular piece of furniture is not on the showroom floor then it will almost certainly be downstairs in our warehouse, so it can be brought up and unpacked for viewing. This is especially important for our Chinese antique pieces as, with well over two hundred antiques available at any one time, we simply don’t have room to show the full collection on our showroom floor even in this much larger space.

Over the next couple of months we will be moving the remaining furniture from our old warehouse to the new premises, until everything is either here or close by. It may be that we need some additional storage space elsewhere but our intention is to house certainly all of our antique collection here so that any item can be viewed on request.

If you’ve not yet made the trip to the new showroom then plan a visit soon. If you are coming from a distance and there is something you particularly want to see then give us a call beforehand and we’ll make sure this is ready for you to view, along with a coffee and a warm welcome.

Tuesday was spent visiting a couple of other warehouses that I tend to source a large number of antiques from each time I visit China. One in particular offers a superb collection of pieces – certainly the best I have seen in Beijing in terms of the range available and the quality of repair. While their prices are certainly not the cheapest the furniture is beautifully restored and sympathetically finished – maintaining each item’s original character as far as possible without applying too thick or shiny a varnish over the top which other workshops often do and which in my eyes can spoil the effect. This is where we now source the majority of our antiques and where most of our ‘China stock’ is held before we ship it.

My timing in this case was perfect as I was able to have first pick of around fifty pieces that had only just come out from restoration, as well as choosing from hundreds of antique Chinese cabinets, tables, chairs, chests and boxes that have been restored over previous months. I selected around forty or fifty items, ranging from large cabinets and painted sideboards from Gansu and Qinghai down to some wooden bowls from Tibet and a couple of cute little children’s desks, as well as stools, altar tables and a few painted trunks.

After lunch we went to see the other supplier, one who usually has a nice collection of antique furniture from Shanxi province including the painted black and red lacquer armoires that this region is famous for. As well as the antique pieces, they also produced some nice painted reproduction pieces and while the range here is smaller it is usually possible to find a nice selection to top up a container load.

I spent my last day in Beijing with another contact over here, visiting a few other workshops and antique warehouses and getting other ideas for reproduction furniture. The range and styles on offer are vast but I came away with some useful contacts and ideas for the future. Our first stop was at another stone market and we arrived after fighting our way through the Beijing traffic for around an hour and a half. The traffic seems to get worse each time I come here despite the various measures by the government to restrict vehicle licenses and ban drivers from using their cars on certain days. However, it was worth it when we arrived – the market had a much wider range of statues and carved stone than is seen at Panjiayuan market and, while I didn’t order anything this time around I made a mental note to visit again next time rather than buying from the larger market. As well as the stoneware there were one or two shops selling carved wooden carvings – buddhas and other figures as well as animals and even acupuncture dummies.

In the afternoon we managed to get to three or four smaller workshops, mostly focusing on reproduction furniture or what they tend to refer to here as ‘re-edition’ pieces – mostly old cabinets that are taken apart, usually resized, and put back together with a brand new finish. Of all of these the most interesting was a workshop that specialises in taking old daybeds from Xinjiang province, the autonomous region in the northwest of China, and converting these into low sideboards – ideal for use as TV stands. Many of the unrestored, unconverted pieces were outside in the forecourt. Each one is over two metres wide and a metre or more deep, so they are reduced in depth and width to make them practical as a modern piece of furniture. What are special about them are the intricate carved patterns that the people of Xinjiang carve onto the front panels – giving them a similar appearance to Moroccan furniture. The original panels would have been brightly painted, but with the passage of time the colours fade so that in the converted pieces the finish is either very muted or even bleached. The result is a quite modern look with real character that I think would be very popular in many UK homes – take a look at some examples on our Facebook page. We will look into shipping a few of these on an upcoming container so I hope to get one or two examples up on our website soon.

I was up at 4.00 am on Thursday morning to start the long journey home, with time to reflect on another productive visit. I’ll be posting a few more details and photos from the trip on the Shimu Facebook page in the next few days (now that I’m free from the block that the Chinese government puts on the site) so have a look on there for more photos and other previews of what is coming.

I met my main contact here in Beijng on Sunday morning and headed straight off to Panjiayuan – the large weekend antique market near the centre of the city. The market is made up of hundreds of little stalls and shops offering some furniture but mostly smaller pieces such as jewellery, jade, artwork, pottery or traditional crafts. In front of the main area is a smaller courtyard where dozens of hawkers lay out their wares on mats and rugs. Most of the items on offer are of very little value – I’ve seen everything from Miao’s little red books (mostly fake I understand) to early telephones and wireless sets, as well as shards of pottery, watches and stones. I avoid this part of the market as it takes time and a keener eye than mine to find the odd valuable item among the huge selection of fakes and general tat.

Instead we first headed to some of the stalls and shops that I have dealt with before to pick up some nice accessories – silk and jade tassels, silk embroidery, photos and decorative jade or wooden calligraphy brushes. We also took a short detour to the new warehouse of a pottery supplier I had bought from before – located not far from the market. As well as the usual green or blue and white pieces, there were some interesting designs that I hadn’t seen before – vases, ceramic stools and pots. We put together an order for several pieces that will be included on our next container from Beijing for arrival in the UK in the new year. It was then back to the Panjiayuan to check out the vendors selling stoneware at one end of the front square. There is a large selection, ranging from smaller carvings of buddhas, horses or temple lions right up to oversized  statues – many of which would need a crane to shift. I chose a few smaller items including some nicely carved marble elephants and stone seated buddhas.

The next day was sunny but bitterly cold so I was glad of the long, padded, ex-army coat that I was loaned – ideal for keeping warm in unheated, drafty warehouses. I spent the day with my main supplier here, reviewing the new ‘china stock’ section of our website and previewing some of the antique cabinets and tables that will very soon be added to this collection. We will continue to increase the selection of stock held in Beijing that can be viewed in this part of our website in order to give as wide a choice as possible, so look out for the latest items in the next week or so.

While there I also chose about 20 antique cabinets, trunks and tables from the warehouse for our next container. These included a beautiful large cabinet from Qinghai in western China, still with its original red lacquer and refined gold decoration – a type of piece that is difficult to come by nowadays. As soon as we have photos and further details of these items they will also go up on the website.

Lastly we discussed ideas for future reproduction furniture and looked at some recent pieces that they have been making for other customers in America and Europe, including some beautiful solid wood dining tables. As the price of reclaimed elm wood has become increasingly expensive in China they have been for some time using other materials as well – particularly poplar and pine. The finish they achieve with these though is very different from the pine finish we are used to in the UK. The wood is worked to have a deep, very attractive grain and texture rather than the flat, uninteresting look that we are used to seeing on most cheap pine furniture. We hope to offer some of this furniture in the future, initially available to order direct from Beijing, but perhaps later from stock held in the UK.

I’m out in China again for another visit to suppliers and on the look out for more furniture and accessories to include on our next shipment of Chinese antiques. Since we’ve added the China stock section to our website many of the items we ship next time will already be available to view and even reserve online from Shimu, if not already then in the next few weeks. This time around I’m therefore looking out mainly for some specific pieces requested by customers as well as some good quality, unusual smaller items. However, I’m sure there will also be plenty of other pieces of antique furniture that take my eye and end up over in the UK.

My first stop was in Shanghai to spend a few days with Michael, who now runs things day to day at the company we have worked with for nearly ten years to supply our main ‘Classical Chinese’ reproduction furniture. I’ve known Michael for four or five years since he started with the company and it was good to see him again – as well as photos of his baby daughter, who was born shortly after my last visit to China. Michael is always open and enthusiastic and, as one of his roles is to look at selling to the domestic Chinese market, we had plenty of ideas to share.  I’m looking forward to working with him more closely in the future to develop some ideas we have for new products.

We spent some time looking at recent products that Michael has been developing for the domestic market, as well as furniture from other suppliers that they are planning to offer. I liked the style of some of these ranges – all in solid wood (either elm, birch or oak) and well made. It may be that we introduce one or two of these to the Shimu range at some stage in the future.

We visited the workshop on Friday to check on progress for the next container and then had time to visit one of the recently built ‘super malls’ not far away. Still only half open this is a huge area entirely devoted to furniture and home accessories – imagine something on a scale twice the size of the NEC, spanning two sides of a river and filled with furniture showrooms offering every kind of style you could think of. Signs direct you to different types of furniture – ‘Italian, French, Modern, Outdoor, Solid Wood’ – and the campus is so large that multi-seat electric carts are provided to ferry exhausted customers from one area to the next. On a Friday afternoon though, the whole place was pretty much a ghost town. Other than the extremely bored looking sales staff in each of the showrooms, we saw almost nobody else, which makes you wonder at the expense laid out by the companies with a presence here. The answer may lie in the price of some of the furniture – the many famous high end western and Chinese ‘designer’ brands are aimed squarely at Shanghai’s new wealthy classes. One showroom we visited, adorned with large black and white photos of the round faced, bald headed designer on the walls, offered an interesting range – modern in style but with distinctive elements of classic Chinese furniture. The price tag for a single chair that looked to have taken its inspiration from the ‘Southern Official’ style, albeit in carbon fibre – RMB 43000 (around £4300)!

I also caught up with the team who produce our silk wallpaper, screens and panels, whose office is also in Shanghai. We had a look through some recent projects and designs that they have worked on recently, mainly for the Chinese market. It was a good discussion and I’m hoping that we will have many more examples of this unique, beautiful product on our website soon.

With the Shanghai part of my visit complete I arrived in Beijing on Saturday evening. The plan is to head to the main market here on Sunday to source many of the smaller items for our next container – stoneware, ceramics, artwork and the like. The days afterwards are then set aside for visiting a few warehouses for antiques and to discuss other possible reproduction furniture. More on that later.

As one of the UK’s leading specialists in Chinese antique and oriental furniture we are often contacted by theatre groups and production teams to supply furniture or accessories for use as props in plays or films. The most recent occasion was just last week, when we had a call from the Royal Shakespeare Company asking if they could order some of our Wooden Pails and Calligraphy Brushes to be used in a forthcoming production of The Orphan of Zhao – the classic tale of revenge sometimes referred to as the ‘Chinese Hamlet’.

We have also been involved with big production movies, such as ‘The 47 Ronin’ due out next year and starring Keanu Reeves as one of band of Samurai out to avenge the death of their master. Shimu supplied 25 red lacquer folding stools to be used in one of the crucial scenes of the film – you can find out more and take a look at one of the stools in one of my previous posts.

Our biggest and most high profile project so far though, has to be working with the production team for Skyfall – the latest (and some are saying greatest) Bond film starring Daniel Craig. Much of the film is set in Shanghai and on an island off Macao, so Shimu was an obvious place to come for some of the oriental furniture and accessories required to turn the set at Pinewood studios, where much of the filming was done, into modern day China.

The buying team first contacted us around this time last year looking to source several items to be used in various scenes of the film and over the following months we supplied a whole range of pieces, many of which were produced to order through our workshop in Shanghai or through our suppliers in Beijing. Amongst these was a wooden towel rail – based on the robe hangers of ancient China and to be used in a scene set in a Macao hotel, as well as a number of antique stools and reproduction tables, plus brass hardware to accessorise a number of window panels.

Chinese lanterns, as supplied for ‘Skyfall’

The biggest challenge though was to provide dozens of lanterns in various shapes and sizes, based on the large wire and canvas lanterns that we sell as part of our range of oriental home accessories. The production team needed several of these made in a larger size than standard, as well as smaller table lanterns and light shades. The issue was that these had to be made and supplied to fit in with a very tight filming schedule, and with the Chinese New Year holiday fast approaching we just managed to get these finished and shipped, arriving on set the day before they were required.

The production team were delighted with the finished lanterns, which were to be beautifully lit for a scene set in Macao, overseen by the cinematographer and nine times Oscar nominee Roger Deakins. If you’ve watched the Skyfall trailer or have already been able to see the film then you will have spotted the lanterns and the final, stunning effect they have.

Filming was completed some time ago and we thought our involvement with the movie was finished, only to be contacted last month by the event team organising the UK premiere, which takes place this evening at the Royal Albert Hall, to be attended by Prince Charles. At short notice we supplied several of our ‘Birdcage’ Floor Lamps and another 30 lanterns for the event, including 5 for the VIP room, to be seen by both British and Hollywood Royalty. I’m still just waiting for my invitation for the red carpet – should be arriving any time now.

Skyfall is on general release from Friday the 26^th October. Look out for the lanterns!

The tenth annual Saltaire festival kicks off today, with a fantastic programme of events scheduled over the next ten days, culminating in the finale weekend on the 15th and 16th September. With tens of thousands of visitors to the village over the period, Saltaire will be buzzing so this is a perfect time to visit Shimu and to enjoy a great day out at the same time.

The programme includes exhibitions of art and photography, film and theatre, street acts, a continental food market, a funfair, kids’ entertainment and various musicians taking to the stage in the centre of the village. It promises to be a week filled with energy, vibrancy and noise!

Saltaire World Herirage Site

If you can’t make it over the next ten days, then make sure you plan a visit soon. Saltaire is a Victorian model village founded in 1851 by the industrialist Sir Titus Salt (the village named after him and the river Aire that runs through it). Sir Titus moved his business from Bradford, building what at the time was the world’s largest mill and establishing the village to house his workers as well as a school, hospital, church, library and alms houses. Almost all of these buildings still remain, including the mill itself (now converted to house a permanent exhibition of local artist David Hockney’s work along with shops and restaurants) and the beautiful United Reformed Church.

The village was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and is now one of the UK’s top tourist destinations with hundreds of thousands of visitors flocking to see its magnificent architecture and to enjoy the peaceful tranquility of the recently restored Roberts Park across the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The village is also a great shopping destination, with a varied and interesting parade of independent shops in the centre of the village as well as in the mill itself.

Among these you will find the Shimu showroom, set on two floors and displaying a wide range of our handcrafted oriental furniture as well as a selection of our current Chinese antique furniture collection. We also have a huge array of smaller accessories, most of which we source direct from China and much of which is not available to order elsewhere. We try to hold as much as possible at the showroom, but if there is a particular piece you would like to see please contact us before your visit and we will make every effort to have it available to view when you come.

Here’s looking forward to a great ten days and we hope you can make the trip to join in the festivities!

We’re just in the process of finalising another shipment of Chinese antiques from Beijing – due to leave in a few weeks from now. Most of the pieces have already been selected and the latest ones were added onto our website last week. Among them are two more pairs of exquisite Chinese chairs to add to several others that we already have in stock, so this seems like a good time to highlight some of the beautiful designs and ingenious construction that the Chinese produced over centuries in chair design.

The chair in China developed early on in the country’s history, with simple stools and seating appearing during the Tang dynasty (618 to 907AD). This was in contrast to most other Asian countries, where the practice of sitting at floor level continued for centuries to come.

From as early as the 6th century one of the most recognisable styles of chair started to appear, and continues to be made in China today with very little modification. This style is usually referred to today as a ‘Yoke-Back’ armchair due to the distinctive shape of the crest rail that extends over the two side stiles, but is also known as an ‘Official’s Hat Chair’ as the same rail also resembles the hats worn by government officials during the Ming period. The chairs started as seating for royalty, but were soon in common usage amongst the Chinese elite, reserved for important house guests. By the early Ming dynasty these chairs were beautifully proportioned, usually with a back splat curved in an ‘S’ shape, with curved armrests (signifying good ‘qi’ or energy) and subtly tapered supporting posts. The apron below the seat would often be curved and the stretchers between the legs positioned with the front one closest to the ground, the side stretchers slightly higher and the rear stretcher highest of all. This placement, known as ‘bubugao’ in Chinese (literally ‘step higher’) was symbolic of career progression.

The designs of the chair changed little across different regions. The main variations tended to be in the vigour of the curves, particularly in the crest rail, with chairs from Shanxi in central China being noted for their strong lines. It was also the practice to decorate the back splat with symbols for good luck, prosperity or long life. In central areas animals (such as bats for good luck or the ‘ruyi’ symbol to grant wishes) were common, while in the eastern province of Shandong for example, carvings of the Chinese character ‘fu’ (for good luck) were prevalent.

This style also developed into the similar side chair, without armrests, which would be used for more general seating and dining. The chairs would be placed formally in pairs, often either side of an altar table in a main reception room, but brought into the centre of the room for entertaining guests.

A further development from the Yoke-Back style is what is referred to as the ‘Southern Official’s Armchair’. This appeared later on in the country’s history, supposedly first in the the southern province of Jiangsu, but soon became popular throughout China. Instead of the extending crest rail of the Yoke-Back chair, the rail joins the rear stiles and the arms join the front supporting posts, giving a very fluid, less imposing appearance. Similar, smaller chairs with solid or carved backs rather than back splats also appeared around the same time. Usually known as rose chairs, these were used by women, usually in their private chambers.

The other most distinctive style of Chinese chair is the ‘horseshoe’ back armchair. Also referred to as ‘Grand Tutor Chairs’ these pieces played an important role in Chinese society, used for ceremony and as seats of honor for the most important guests. They were probably also used for transport, with wooden poles being fitted along the sides so that four servants could easily carry the chair and its owner. The unmistakeable curved semicircular armrests were produced usually using five pieces of curved wood that were fitted together using a series of ingenious overlapping joints. The chairs were made with generous proportions befitting the status of the sitter, but are surprisingly comfortable.

More simple versions of the horseshoe chair were also produced in Shandong and other provinces out of softwood such as willow. This meant that the curved armrests could be made from a single piece of wood rather than with the complicated joins of the more refined versions.

During the Qing dynasty, around the 18th century, tastes began to change amongst China’s elite, with the focus starting to turn towards a heavier, more elaborate style. Out of this came a new type of chair, sometimes referred to as an ‘Emperor Chair’ as they again were made to denote the status of the sitter. These were made with a heavy, ‘waisted’ seat on top of which would be oranately carved armrests and back splats, the backs also often being fitted with marble.

As well as our antique pieces, you will find reproduction versions of most of these wonderful styles of chairs in our Classical Chinese furniture range – the proportions slightly modified to make them more suitable for a western home. The Yoke-Back chairs, with carved dragon motifs in the backrest, make wonderful dining chairs, while our horseshoe and southern official chairs are great as statement pieces in a bedroom or living room. However, for their sheer presence and sense of history as well as for the beauty of their curves and workmanship, a pair of antique Chinese chairs is the ultimate in seating – placed either side of a console table they add instant impact to any modern reception room.

We’ve been busy over the past few weeks editing and adding onto the website all the latest pieces for our Chinese antique furniture collection. These are the pieces that I selected on my last visit to Beijing a couple of months ago, and they are now just waiting to clear customs in Beijing to be shipped to the UK in the next week or so. All being well they will arrive around the end of June, but you can already see the full collection on our website and reserve any item in advance.

I am particularly pleased with the pieces that we have lined up this time. I always try to find an eclectic mix that will appeal to different tastes – painted and more plain pieces, a natural finish or a more classic lacquer and varnish, and I hope this is the case again. In addition there are one or two more unusual and special pieces such as a beautifully carved altar table in poplar wood, a painted book cabinet from Qinghai province with divided sections inside, a painted side cabinet in green lacquer and a particularly nice black lacquer painted armoire from Shanxi province. Each piece has a history and story to tell – I always find myself thinking about who originally owned a piece and what events it would have lived through.

Among the collection this time are a number of ‘opera trunks’ from Shanxi province dating from around 1850. Each one is in black lacquer decorated on the front with bright paintings and, in this instance, we have a very good idea of their use and the history behind them. During the mid 19th century Chinese opera troupes would tour the countryside, stopping in varous towns to perform. These trunks were used to store the brightly coloured robes and costumes used during the performances and, as the troupe travelled from town to town, these would be placed on the back of their carts with the paintings facing outwards. The paintings depict scenes from the opera being performed and so,  as the troupe travelled from town to town, they acted as a form of promotion to let the local townspeople know that the opera troupe was in town and what the performance would be.

The paintings on the trunks that I selected in Beijing are still in good condition, the colourful robes and even the expressions on the faces of the characters represented are all clearly visible. The style was for a central painting, showing the opera scene, to be framed with further paintings – usually of flowers, and ours are fine examples. The trunks were normally quite large and a couple of ours have been reduced in depth, making them more suitable in a modern home perhaps to use as a side table.