Accent on Asia Rank does have its privileges. When a pair of 2,000-year-old Han Dynasty terra cotta horses came into the showroom at C.S. Wo Gallery two weeks ago, the vice president, Wendell Wo, whose grandfather founded the home furnishing store, reserved one of the pony-size horses for his own home.
C.S.Wo broadens its inventory
Marukai tries furniture
to offer prized antiques from ChinaBy Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin"Of course, I don't have a place for it. I'll have to BUILD a place for it," said Wo, who furnishes his own home with a mix of Chinese antiques and contemporary furniture.
In the meantime, the horse, with a prized yellowish patina and aged glazes, will wait in the furniture gallery, breaking the store's no-hold policy. But if it hadn't been for Wo's penchant for Chinese antique pottery, the third-generation family-run business would not have had a head start in the current Asian-style furniture trend.
About three years ago, Wo became interested in antique Chinese pottery and began to attend antiques auctions on the mainland to learn more about Chinese pottery. During one of those trips, he happened upon a Chinese antique furniture dealer on the East Coast.
"We really stumbled onto it. I was just a novice collector (of Chinese pottery), and I didn't really know about the furniture. But we thought we'd bring the furniture into the gallery and try it," Wo said.The small order of Chinese antique furniture "took off with a bang," giving the furniture gallery a new marketing direction.
Wo and Brad Harris, buyer and division manager for C.S. Wo, began to seek out more of the antique pieces, first by going to Hong Kong, then China, where the selection is greater and prices lower.
"We do handpick every piece we buy for the store. We inspect everything. We look at the patina of the wood, the finishes, if it needs any repair," Harris said.
Wo and Harris go to Zhuhai, a city bordering Macao, two or three times a year, where they meet with Chinese dealers who collect pieces at least 100 years old and refurbish them to suit the Western market.
Harris said Hawaii customers like rich wood tones, which show off the age of the furniture, and black lacquer, which is a good complement to contemporary furniture.
Most of the wood furniture is made with elm that often is finished to a rich, dark coffee brown. Walnut and peach wood, both with golden tones, are rarer and more expensive but also popular.Because of the small sizes of dwellings in Hawaii, the store carries smaller and less ornate pieces for better fit into the homes. Some of the large cabinets are modified, with shelves adjusted to house television sets, to make them more functional.
"These are not museum pieces but they are antiques, and we try not to alter them too much so that they don't lose their integrity," Harris said.
Chinese antique furniture offers dramatic and unique focal points in the home, said Harris, who is also an interior designer. Wedding cabinets, or chest-on-chest cabinets, or Tianjian cabinets are all functional and easy to coordinate with contemporary Western furnishing. Alter coffers, a buffetlike table, are popular living room additions.
The Chinese antique pieces are well made of solid wood -- the furniture is assembled with wood joints and not nails, Harris said. They also are less expensive (with large cabinets costing about $2,000) than contemporary furniture done in Asian designs.
Asian-style furniture always has been popular in the upper-end market, Harris said, but is now enjoying a revival in the mass market. C.S. Wo has been carrying Chinese antiques for more than two years.
The store brings in a 40-foot container, each with about 400 pieces of Chinese furniture and accessories, every month and a half, Wo said. The store also carries antique reproductions, such as bird cages, baskets and pottery, as well as furnishing from other Asian countries.
While C.S. Wo carries all styles of furnishing, the Chinese antiques have given the store an unique product line, Wo said.
"Every piece is unique. When a client comes in and falls in love with something, it's difficult to cross-shop for. You can't really find it somewhere else," Wo said.
For example, the Han Dynasty horses are rare, and expensive when they are available. That's why Wo -- who is glad that his brother, Robert, the president of the family business, does not have the same fondness for Chinese antiques -- was able to immediately reserve a horse for himself. He took the smaller of the two horses. The larger one, which is just as magnificent, he said, is available for $12,000.
Even though the store isn't having its grand opening until tomorrow, the cha tansu (tea cabinets) and other Japanese antiques have been flying out the door. Marukai branches
out from food
to furnishingsBy Suzanne Tswei
Star-BulletinThe popularity of Tsuru Matsu An at the Ewa end of Ward Centre has been a happy surprise for owner Richard Matsu, who is branching out from his successful Asian grocery chain, Marukai Hawaii. He describes his new store as a "Japanese culture gift shop" and intended it to be a "happy antique store." But he hadn't counted on the immediate popularity.
Since the store opened its doors May 24, customers have been buying a good number of cha tansu, whose compact size is ideal for island home furnishing. The wood cabinets have compartments and sliding glass doors, which sometimes are frosted or etched with Japanese designs.
Other popular items include kaidan tansu (steps that are also drawers,) kotasu (wood lattice tables,) ranma (carved, decorative wood panels,) and tsukubai (ceramic or stone water fountains.) The store also carries, among other items, baskets, ceramics, lacquer ware, wax umbrellas and kimonos.Some items are new, while some are vintage and some qualify as antiques (at least 100 years old.)
Matsu first sold these home furnishing and craft items in the Marukai stores as promotional items twice a year. And then he realized that Hawaii residents have an eye for Japanese aesthetics and decided to open this store.
Tsuru Matsu An is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. After the grand opening tomorrow, its hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Call 593-8303.
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