An update from Shanghai: part 1

I’m in China this week, sourcing antiques and checking on the workshops which make our handcrafted ranges.

It has been a rainy few days in Shanghai but good to catch up again with old friends and check on progress for our next shipment – a 40 foot container due to leave here at the beginning of June. The supplier we use in Shanghai for much of our new furniture including our Classical Chinese range has moved recently to a larger factory, so this was the first opportunity for me to visit the new premises.

Compared to many of the workshops I have seen in China, particularly many of the little ateliers in Beijing, it is roomy, light and well equipped – a good balance between handcrafted, traditional techniques and modern efficiency.

I was very pleased with the quality of everything I saw, particularly the finish on the pieces that were already completed as the factory is using a new, more hard-wearing lacquer for the range and this is the first time I had seen the results. It gives a lovely, silky finish that is nice to the touch but is more durable than other lacquers.

Whilst some of the 150 or so pieces of furniture that will go on the container were already finished other than having hardware fitted, the majority were completed only to the woodwork stage. This gave me the chance to inspect the quality of the carpentry on the furniture, including several ‘made to order’ presold pieces.

I love to see much of the traditional Chinese joinery still in use in our furniture, although these days the carpenters also use some more modern techniques such as machine cut dovetail joints on some of the larger drawers for added strength.

Between visiting the factory and checking out one or two of the local markets in Shanghai much of my time here has been spent, as ever, either sitting in traffic or sitting at a restaurant table. The traffic here never ceases to amaze me and, despite fairly stringent restrictions by the local government on granting new car licenses, is only getting worse as a few more thousand cars enter onto the roads every month.

Shanghai has an excellent and cheap underground system that I tend to use when I’m out and about by myself but my contacts here will always drive. I can’t help but wonder at the hours, days and weeks that mount up sitting in gridlock that could be spent more productively.

Anyway, enough of traffic. In my next post, I’ll tell you a little more about my time spent at the restaurant