Furniture with Character

Find that special piece of furniture you've been looking for at the Silk Road Gallery in Kingston. Style and practicality make a statement in any decor - like this early 1900s sideboard, perfectly at home with contemporary art. 

Festive end of year drinks on Friday 18th of December, 3-8pm

It's been a big year at our gallery, and it's time to celebrate! We are inviting all of our clients, friends and supporters to join us for festive end of year drinks on Friday 18th of December, 3-8pm.

Classic goes with classic!

One of our sideboards dating from the early 1900s, now in a lovely home surrounded by original artworks and classic modern furniture from the 50s and 60s. A great combination!

New shipment just arrived :) A lot of antique and up-cycled furniture.

Antique Bench

Beautiful elm bench seat in the east-meet-west style made 100 years ago in Shanghai, combining traditional carved features on the legs, with western turned vertical support on the back.

(model: Karen Green)

Small red sideboard made from recycled elm, perfect for your new LED TV.

Beautifully carved hall table, red lacquered with gold, early 1900s from Fujian province.

Back to blog in 2015, beautifully restored hall table and chairs.

Beautiful storage for your modern home

If you have a contemporary home you might be struggling to make your living spaces feel cosy and personal. A great solution is to complement your modern décor and furniture with one or two antique or restored pieces.

Quality pieces add character to contemporary interiors through their beauty, history and personality.

Old wood develops gorgeous textures, sensuous to touch.

Old lacquered pieces have a fantastic richness that you just can’t recreate. Even our painted pieces look very comfortable in contemporary spaces – and give you ‘art’ and ‘furniture’ in one package!

Our Workshop

We partner with a workshop in China where a dedicated team of craftsmen and women take exquisite old furniture which has seen better days, and painstakingly bring it back to life. The highly skilled workers specialise in the different trades within furniture making and restoration, meaning we can also commission bespoke pieces for our customers. Read more here.



  

  

   

Porcelain

Most of our porcelain items are museum copies of classic Chinese imperial court pieces - vases, jars, pots, large platters and large bowls.  Beautiful, functional, and (if you’re a goldfish) quite comfortable to live in!

Hou

Unique coffee table with decorative panels

This very special coffee table was converted from an early 1800s carved bed from Ningxia. We stumbled across a rare (and small) stockpile of these old beds some time ago, and snapped them up to produce a very limited range of new designs. This coffee table is the last remaining piece.

All the handcarving is original, with a different design on each panel. The reverse side has the (original) handcarved frames, with new plain doors. Everything has been lovingly finished by our craftspeople, creating a stunning coffee table with a real story to tell. (And plenty of room to hide your own stories inside!)

Hou

A display table which makes its own statement

A dusty piece of carvings leaning against the wall turned out to be the base of a late 1800s folding table from Hunan.  Far too beautiful to hide under a table top, so we converted it into an elegant way to display precious items.  We had to wait two shipments to get it home, but it was worth it!

  

Hou

The beautiful and versatile "hall table"

Some of our most elegant pieces are called "hall tables". The proportions are often light and delicate, and always pleasing to the eye. Some designs highlight the natural beauty of the timber, some have wonderful curves, while others have intricate carvings or colourful paintings. Some even have secret places to hang your keys!

Don't be misled by the term "hall"... our clients use them in many different rooms. Perfect for displaying photos, flowers, porcelain, etc, or under a piece of art (or in one client's case, a kimono). And of course, ideal in the hall for the phone (and answering machine and chargers and other gizmos), with phone books and takeaway menus stashed away in the drawers!

Hou

Elegant narrow cupboards

This matching pair of cupboards dates from the late 1800s. Made of northern elm, they have a wonderful decorative finish which will make them a highlight piece, while fitting in with most decors.

A stylish storage solution for any room.
PS - People sometimes ask why the legs are so long in this style of Chinese furniture. It adds to the elegance, but there was also originally a practical reason. Ask us (or send in your theories)!

Hou

Elegant country-style painted sideboard

It was with mixed emotions that we said goodbye this week to this beautiful willow sideboard from inner Mongolia. We fell in love with this late 1800s piece as soon as we saw it in China - superb craftsmanship, gorgeous timber, and delicate paintings. But we are glad it has gone to a good home with a local artist, where it will get the appreciation it deserves.

Hou

Original medicine cupboard from late 1800s

Original medicine cupboards are highly sought after.  Traditionally, the open shelves at the top were used to store 'wet' medicine ingredients in large blue and white jars (often known in the west as 'ginger jars').  The small drawers below were used for the dry medicine ingredients.

This magnificent example was made from Beech in Zhejiang province in the late 1800s (pair available). If you are after complete authenticity, we also have some of the antique medicine jars. We also have some smaller examples in different materials.

Hou

Sitting in style

A selection of chairs from our gallery.  Except for the earlier horseshoe armchair, all date from the late 1800s. 

 

• a black lacquer wedding chair with a carved back  splat in northern elm (yumu)
• a red chair from Fujian made of fir (shanmu)
• a tea chair from Hunan in camphor wood (zhangmu) with a nicely carved top rail
• a tea chair also in camphor wood  from Hunan but with a plain top rail
• a red lacquer camphorwood chair with carved back and arms from Guangdong 
• an arm chair in elm (yumu) from Shanxi
• a folding chair horseshoe armchair from the late 1700s made of Jichimu (genus Ormosa) also known as chicken-wing wood because the rays in the timber resemble bird feathers.

 Lorraine

Delicate walnut table

If you've ever seen walnut you'll know how attractive the colouring and grain is.  This late Qing table is a lovely example from Xian, the ancient capital of China, in Shaanxi province. 

Hou

Practical Storage

We believe furniture should be practical ... and storage should be beautiful.
Here are a few examples.

Hou