Background to Chinoiserie - Chinoiserie decorating style is a timeless take on the exotic to suit any style. This romantic form of decoration is famous for captivating entire rooms with its presence and dreamy decorations, Chinoiserie is intriguing, alluring, playful, and glamorous, it has that special something, that invites closer inspection. And it is no passing fad. Popular since the cultures of Europe and Asia first began to fraternize centuries ago, chinoiserie still holds court today.
`Chinoiserie’ an interiors style that emerged in 1700s, it was a portrayal by explorers like Marco Polo of an intriguing and romantic fantasy land called Cathay. Where fiery dragons moved amidst palaces and pagodas that were inhabited by exquisite concubines and moustachioed mandarins . The legends of splendour and adventure fired the Euroepean imagination, creating a fascination for all things Chinese and a insatiable demand for vestiges of life in that mystic land.
Trade between East and West had always been sporadic, the land of Cathay was largely presumed to be a myth rather than a reality. When the port city of Canton opened to the West in the 17th century, merchant adventurers returned with cargoes of porcelain, silk, lacquer, tea and the promise of more resplendent goods to come. The growing demand led European craftsmen to attempt their own imitations of Chinese decorative styles, using any motif culled from the East whether it was Chinese or not. As more envoys visited Asia, greater authenticity did become possible but fantasy seemed to be more appealing to the European taste.
The French became devoted to the Chinese style, dubbing it `Chinoiserie’ which led to its popularity in other parts of Europe. The style `Chinoiserie’ is derived from `chinois’ the French for Chinese, it is a style that has been inspired by art and design fro China, Japan and other Asian countries.
Background to Our Tiles - Individually hand crafted vintage tube line tiles that display all the period style of the 19th Century.
Our tiles are made with the same time honoured methods and techniques that were used to make the original tube line tiles of the 1900s.
Tube lining is a technique in tile production that produces a raised design on the tile which is then hand filled with deep areas of rich glaze colour.
We work directly with the manufacturer who has re-opened a British tile factory that fell into dis-use in the 1950s. A major restoration project of the machinery and upgrade where necessary, along with extensive research to produce our own rich colour glaze recipes. Our unique antique glaze, gives the tiles a heavy crackled glaze appearance, ideal for using in restoration projects that require tiles to be indistinguishable in appearance from the originals.
We also provides Vintage tiles in a range of accessories that are both functional and ornamental. The tiles are beautifully framed in a range of wooden accessories such as jewellery and treasure boxes, coat hooks, letter racks and wall plaques.
Background to Crewel Embroidery - The word crewel, with a variety of spellings, can be found in English records back to the 13th century. It is thought to have come from the East to Egypt then to Greece and Rome where it traveled with the Roman conquests to England. From the 15th century crewel embroidery meant any embroidery technique using fine worsted yarns. By the 20th century crewelwork had been redefined to mean surface embroidery with wool.
Crewel, by definition, is the application of a variety of stitches to the surface of fabric, usually linen, following a design applied to the fabric. The technique is at least 1,000 years old, it was used in the Bayeaux Tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hastings 1066.
The use of 2 ply wool (2 fold wool twisted yarn) gives very tight, fine quality stitching, use of this type of wool allows more colour variations and sharper patterns.
Single ply wool, is relatively thicker wool and gives a rustic look, since the edges are not as sharp as produced double ply yarn.
Today the valley of Kashmir in North India is home to this timeless art, where all the sticitching is done by hand with the use of a small hand tool, known as 'Aari'.
Background to Florentine - Our Florentine range combines unique gift items with luxurious flair and of practical use. Temple Trading are developing a range of Florentine decoupage trays and accessories for the home.
Handmade in Italy with a return to craftsmanship and traditional gilding techniques, the range captures the popular time-worn look of precious antiques while providing the perfect accent for any interior.
Incorporating Temple Trading fine art images with Florentine items we now have a varied collection. The line consists of trays, waste paper bins, tissue boxes, mirrors in a range of designs including tulips, lemons, lilies and also in muted plain colours…
