Oak is one of the most well known timbers for furniture use. Oak furniture has literally been around for thousands of years. The properties of oak make it desirable for furniture- it is hard wearing, heavy, andvery durable and has a very attractive grain. It also has water resistant properties and easy to work with.
We believe the first furniture in Europe was made from oak, this is not surprising as oak was the most common tree growing around. People did not used to travel very much and would use what was easily to hand. It was usually the wealthy who had any kind of furniture. The first kinds of furniture consisted of benches and roughly hewn tables. They were a very basic rectangular designs, with no design or aesthetic element and purely functional. As societies developed so their furniture changed. As the middle classes grew wealthier furniture was no longer purely functional. People started having possessions and discovered that chests were a place to keep them. Cupboards were originally just shelves cup boards and were a place to keep kitchen cups and utensils.
Read the rest of this entry »

More is known about furniture in Egypt than anywhere else in the ancient world. By the New Kingdom, Egyptian furniture was highly prized and was often sent as tribute to the rulers of neighboring countries. Fragments of Egyptian furniture have been excavated at sites around Western Asia.
Many Predynastic burials in the Nile valley have the body placed on wooden poles and covered with a matting made of plant fibre while some burials are found in primitive wooden boxes. By the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt we find bed frames were in common use with many examples being found in 1st dynasty (3100-2890 BC) tombs. The quality of these bed frames ranged from conveniently shaped branches that were lashed together, to sophisticated examples made from rounded poles that were jointed together and supported on finely carved bovine shaped legs.
At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, which opens with the 3rd dynasty (2686-2613BC), we see major advances in building and the associated trade of carpentry. The quality of royal furniture made during this period can be seen in those examples discovered by the American Egyptologist George Reisner, in the 4th dynasty tomb of Queen Hetepheres (c 2600 BC) at Giza. When he opened the tomb, he found that the wooden elements from which the furniture had been made had rotted away to powder. However, it proved possible to reconstruct much of the Queen’s furniture by studying the positions of the gold sheaths, which had encased the furniture, and the inlays that had fallen free and lay on the tombs floor. Hetepheres’ furniture consisted of two armchairs, bed frame, bed canopy, carrying chair and two boxes. What Reisner and his team achieved, from what appeared to be a pile of unrelated fragments of gold and faience, is remarkable for it has given us a small but superb collection of early furniture which rivals Tutankhamun’s which was manufactured over a thousand years later.
Read the rest of this entry »

A Mechanical Clock is one that is powered by a mechanical means (spring, coiled spring or falling weights). The mechanical clock is made from simple mechanical (not electrical) components. The precision of a mechanical clock depends largely on how well it is constructed (engingeering of its components). The mechanical clocks are basically all clocks that are not electrical, such as grandfather, cuckoo, grandmother, etc…. any clock the needs to be wound up.
The mechnical clocks truely have claim to the greatest (longest, most progressive) influence in clock history. The original mechanical clocks appeared sometime in the 1300’s. These clocks were large affairs (housed in churches and the like) that used falling weights as power supplies, and chimed a bell at given intervals instead of displaying time on a clock face. The early clocks were also sometimes powered by springs.
Read the rest of this entry »

Beginnings
Humankind has always recognized the passing of time and has tried to measure and record that passing. The simple alarm clock at your bedside table owes its existence to more than 6,000 years of thinking about time and tinkering with devices to accurately mark its passage.
A general knowledge of time division was relevant to the earliest of farmers, who sectioned quadrants of time into broad periods of seasons for planting, growing and harvesting. In those days however, the actual hour of any particular day was not important.
As early civilizations grew and became more complex in their needs for order and governance a more precise measure of time was required. The early Egyptians originated the division of each day into two measurable parts, using the position of an obelisks shadow to mark high noon. Other early and more precise timekeeping devices also include the hourglass, indexed candles that burned at a fixed rate, and water powered devices.

Early Mechanical Clocks
In medieval times, the regulation of monastic calls to prayer was accomplished by means of mechanical tower clocks. This revolutionary device soon synchronized the rhythms of entire cities. World views of entire cultures were influenced by the type of clocks they used. The development of atomic clocks, accurate to a billionth of a second, seem to reflect modern society’s near-obsession with youth, age and the passage of time.
Read the rest of this entry »

Besides their historical and scientific interest many 16th, 17th and 18th century maps can be classified as works of fine, artistic significance. They were designed not only to instruct but also to attract purchasers, and the designs of the maps reflected the artistic expression of the times in which they were created.
Starting in the late 16th century it became the fashion to encase the title of the map or mileage scale in a decorative cartouche. A cartouche is an ornamental frame and the earliest of these were drawn in a Strapwork design, a term applied to carved wooden arabesques & rinceau designs which looked like patterns cut from sheets of leather.
As the years passed, styles changed and Baroque became fashionable; originating in Italy in the late 16th century which incorporated heavy detail and bold sweeping curves. Baroque was superceded in the early 1700’s by the Rococco movement which swept Europe, after evolving in Paris, and was characterized by delicate lines, curves and scroll motifs intertwined with flowers and foliage. The name Rococco is derived from the French ‘rocaille’ and ‘coquille’ (rock and shell) both incorporated in this style of decoration.
Read the rest of this entry »

During the 17th century, the Persian aristocracy wore their social status on their sleeves. They were anything but timid about flaunting their rank through the use of rich textiles. They regaled themselves and their horses with these luxurious woven accoutrements and spread them unabashedly on the walls, floors and furniture of their magnificent palaces, even using them to decorate their coffins. In many cases, the textiles were given to royals as tribute.
Persia’s shimmering woven silk textiles, often inspired by poems and miniature paintings, exuded a refinement that is a great source of inspiration for design today a sometimes vivid, sometimes pale palette, urbane and understated composition, with cosmopolitan touches imported by way of the merchants of Venice. These gracious courtly works, with their origins based upon naturalistic images of flora and fauna, established the sophisticated design vocabulary of the Safavid empire in its sumptuous textiles as well as its majestic Persian carpets. They are quite a contrast to the geometric abstractions found in a wide range of colorful tribal designs one associates with Persian textiles and rugs woven in the outlying villages.
The history of brocaded silk weaving dates back to the time before the Sassanid dynasty. At that time this handicraft was exported to Europe and Rome. After the Sassanid period, due to the fact that the use of gold was prohibited for men, so weaving of this kind of cloth was almost stopped. During the Mogul era, the textile industry was almost forgotten in Iran, and the masters, for fear of their lives, lived in hiding. The textile industry was revived during the Safavid period, and during the reign of Shah Abbas, brocade artists were asked to migrate to Isfahan, and start working in the royal workshops.
Read the rest of this entry »

Thai history concentrates on the history of the Thai people, less on the history of people living in the geographical area of present day Thailand. Simplified, Thai history can be divided in a pre-Sukhothai and a post-Sukhothai period, the Sukhothai period being regarded as the first true Thai kingdom. Also since that time history has been recorded and written down.

Thai history before the Sukhothai kingdom
We should start with the important archaeologic findings of the Ban Chiang culture in the northeast of Thailand. There existed in that area a strongly developed culture with early agriculture and bronze metallurgy about 3000 BC. When visiting Bangkok one should not neglect to visit Wang Suan Phakkaat, a museum that besides other artefacts, has an important collection of Ban Chiang ceramics and artefacts. The pottery is quite colorful and modern looking.
Read the rest of this entry »

Of the many diverse arts that flourished in the early Islamic period, textiles played an especially significant role in society, one that continued in subsequent periods. Textiles were ubiquitous in Islamic lands, serving as clothing, household furnishings, and portable architecture (tents). The manufacture of and trade in textiles were highly sophisticated and profitable industries that built upon Byzantine and Sasanian traditions. Often made with costly materials such as silk and gold- and silver-wrapped thread and decorated with complex designs, textiles were luxury goods signifying wealth and social status.
Islamic textiles were also widely exported to the West, where their prominence is underscored by their impact on European languages. For example, the English words “cotton” and “mohair,” and “taffeta” and “seersucker,” derive, respectively, from Arabic and Persian. Despite their prevalence, comparatively few textiles have survived from the early Islamic period. Textiles are inherently fragile, and because of their value Islamic fabrics in all periods were cut down and reused over and over again until they literally wore out. Many of the extant early Islamic textiles were found in Egypt, primarily in graves, where the dark and dry conditions helped to preserve them. The fragments that have survived are fabricated from cotton, linen, silk and wool, often dyed vivid colors. They demonstrate a well-developed textile technology notable for its use of complicated and richly colored designs.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ceramic art was produced in different parts of present day Thailand. Sukhothai or Sangkhalok (as named by the Chinese) ceramics are maybe the most important subgroup, having been produced in a distinct area and time period (around the timeframe of the Sukhothai kingdom). However, it seems that nowadays all ancient ceramics of that time period are referred to as Sukhothai or Sangkhalok wares, further distinction basically made by archaeologists and professional collectors.
The kiln sites of the Sukhothai wares have been explored and are scattered over two main areas nl. the Sukhothai kilns outside the northern wall of the ancient city of Sukhothai, and the Sri Satchanalai kilns. One particular kiln in Sri Satchanalai has been excavated and is exhibited as an open air museum, a few km northwest of the Sri Satchanalai archaeologic site.
Production begun in the 13th century AD, possibly with the decline of Khmer ceramics. During the 15th century China was faced with an important crisis, opening the opportunity for Sukhothai ceramics to conquer export markets. Sukhothai wares have been found in Indonesia, the Philippines and China among other countries. They were a very important article of trade. Major collections have been found in sunken vessels around the gulf of Thailand, still in good condition after centuries in the water.
Read the rest of this entry »

Swords have changed with the abilities of man to forge and work metals. The first swords are generally considered to have appeared around 2,000 BC during the Bronze age.

The Bronze Age
As the ability to work metals improved longer blades were possible to make and the dagger evolved into the sword. This happened in various parts of the world during the bronze age (2,000 BC to ca. 1400 BC). The bronze age sword was predominantly a stabbing weapon with a very small leaf shaped hilt. Read the rest of this entry »