duck

L350xW190xH200mm, China

A wood carving of a duck with hand painted feathers.

I am afraid there is no Chinese legends of ducks but only recipes …

Cantonese Roast Duck

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 duck
  • 1 tbs of honey
  • Chinese spiced salt

METHOD

  1. set up an area where you can hang the duck for 8 – 12 hours (e.g. over the sink, etc.)
  2. fill up the kettle and put it on.
  3. spoon out 1 tbs of honey and put the spoon in a mug.
  4. wash the duck and clean out all the giblets
  5. pour half a mug of hot water into the honey containing mug.
  6. in an unplugged sink, carefully pour the rest of the boiling water over the outside of the duck, you will notice the skin will tighten up as the water touches.
  7. hang the duck and pour the honey water over the skin.
  8. leave the duck alone for 8 – 12 hours
  9. in a preheated oven  roast the duck breast side up for 20 mins at 180c, turn it over and roast for another 20 mins, then breast side up again for another 20 mins.
  10. leave to rest for 15 mins if you can resist the temptation, carve it out, sprinkle with salt and enjoy!

pen holder

DIA80xH420mm, China

This brush holder is in the form of a tree log, it is made with the stone is found outside of the mineral jade, the so called skin of jade.  As the material and colour is completely different from the jade, part of the “jade skin” is sometimes used as an articulation for jade carvings.  Here it is used on its own to resemble the bark of a tree.

Click here to see our other brush holders.

comb

L130xW50mm, China

Ever wonder how a wooden comb is made?

In the days when hair washing is not a daily event, the combs acted as a tool for cleaning of the hair.  Dust, dandruff, lices and any knots and tangles are all sorted.

bed alcove

Come to see our selection of furniture!

bowl

bowlDIA120xH50mm, China

This pair of octagonal bowls are decorated with goldfish, a traditional blessing symbol.  Gold 金 (Jin) Fish 魚 (Yu), the word “fish” shares the same pronunciation with the word surplus 餘 (Yu).  A lot of chinese decoration symbols follow the play of homophone, these might all be a bit superstitious and arbitrary but in the days of old rural China when  life is hard, these kind of blessing is an expression hope for a better life.  Even in today’s world, these kind of subtle tradition carries on e.g. in Hong Kong, an Empty 空(Hung) Residence 宅 (Zaak) would be call a Blessed 吉(Ji) Residence, as the word “emtpy” 空(Hung) has the same pronunciation as 兇 (Hung) – a murder house.  Changing a word that make no sense to the original meaning just for the sake of avoiding a bad homophone.

Anyway, ain’t these goldfish the cutest?!

maskW145xH210mm, Indonesia

 This is a mask of Jinggananom,  a rebellious fighter in the masked dance of Topeng Cirebon, the masked dance of West Java.

The Cirebon masked dance describes the disposition of human life;
Panji Dance (the perfect human, fair, wise and doing good deeds),
Samba Dance (procession, lust and glamour)
Tumenggung Dance (a warrior’s loyality, heroism and dedication)
Rumyang Dance
Kelana Dance (greeds and ambition)

Two touching documentary tributed to the late maestro Mimi Rasinah.

washi coster

W150xL150mm, Japan

A simple coaster made of handmade Japanese paper, washi.  The paper is treated with water resistant coating to make the coaster more durable.  It is part of the collection from the Otake Japanese Paper Workshop in Hiroshima, the workshop is set up to promote and to continue the art of Japanese handmade paper.

paintingW260xL750mm, China

This painting consists of illustration of the epic Ming dynasty novel “Journey To The West” which is described the journey monk Xuan Zang and his three disciples Sun Wu Kong (monkey), Zu Ba Jie (pig) and  Sha Jing (saint banished to the mortal world) took to the West to find the holy scripts.

I remembered as a child, the novel has been an entire summer’s entertainment.
Here is one of the many adventure described in the book.

golden wood carvingW60xL90xH130mm, China

This is a figurine of the character Fan Li Hua, one of the four famous Chinese female warriors (Hua Mu Lan, Mu Gui Ying and Qiu Jin).

Fan Li Hua is the beautiful daughter of a border general, well treated in military tactic and martial art, married to General Xue Ding Shan, she was also a general herself and pacified the western counties in the Tang dynasty.  The story of Fan Li Hua has been made into opera, “Fan Jiang Guan”.  The story began with Emperor and General Xue’s father trapped by the enemy in the town, Suo Yang Cheng.  The mother of General Xue has send a message for Fan to help with situation, at the same time, the twin sister of Xue has arrived with the army supply.  At this point, Xue’s sister has a strategic dispute with Fan Li Hua (who by then is already a General).  The spoiled sister-in-law started a fight, though no match against Fan wanted the upper hand.  Fan uses her wit and managed to calm the household as well as rescuing the Emperor.

embroidery

DIA250mm, China

This embroidery was taken from a du dou, a traditional Chinese under garment.  Du dou for men and children are mostly decorated with embroidery, normally by the mother or the lover.  This embroidery is one from the mother to the child, the pattern of the embroidery is filled with object of blessing.

In the middle is a TIGER, representing bravery.
Surrounding the tiger are 6 treasures (from 12 o’clock);

GOURD – charm against evils,
BOOKS – wisdom
FAN – inject life into the dead (one of the treasures of the 8 Immortals)
XIU QIU – love
SCISSOR – charm against evils
RHINOCEROS HORN – victory
PAINTINGS – scholarly