Japanese Antiques

It's been just about forever since I've done a non-baby related blog post. It's amazing how instantly a baby changes your life... for the better. :) Anyway, now that I have a second of peace and quiet, I decided to write about our recent antique purchases.

Through the expat community, we learned about an antique dealer who has a huge warehouse full of old goodies. So one weekend before Elodie was born, we went out there to browse through his items. Here's what we found:

An old Chinese scroll. It's has a navy blue floral background with some gold highlights. The painting is of black/gray bamboo and red/pink cherry blossoms. I instantly fell in love with it!

Japanese old kiri wood "kodansu" tansu chest. It's in excellent condition with some usual wear from age and usage. It's from 1900 during the Japanese late Meiji or Taisho period. When we made this purchase we officially decided that we won't be going home in just suitcases anymore. We'll have to make a shipment back to the U.S. when we leave.

Vintage Japanese kokeshi dolls. I believe he told us they are from around 1950. Today kokeshi dolls are handmade from wood, usually shaped with a simple trunk and enlarged head. The head has simple lines painted on it to define the face. The body typically has a floral design and lacks arms and legs. These dolls have similar features to the modern dolls, but have kimono fabric for the trunk instead of plain wood showing; and have small heads instead of the over sized modern ones.