What is your most interesting piece of furniture?

Fabricus · January 11, 2016

What is your best, most interesting or most unusual piece of furniture?

1. Post a photo.

2. Describe it: say why it's interesting; explain its cultural / historical significance.

3. Don't simply show your most expensive piece. No one'll be impressed.

4. Say where in Thailand you bought it.

I'll start. The photo below shows a Kopitiam coffee shop table, sometimes also known as a Malacca coffee shop table. It's not mine (it's a photo off the net), but mine is very similar.

The term Kopitiam is Malay and refers to traditional coffee shops found throughout Malaysia and Singapore. Tables in these shops usually feature a marble top and teak base.

I bought the table in Pattani where, to the best of my knowledge, there is only one Kopitiam. It's a beautiful little shop packed full of wonderful antiques. It's almost like a museum!

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_tiam

villagefarang · January 11, 2016

This is a Chinese daybed we purchased in Chiang Mai and it is special because our cats look good on it.

IMA_FARANG · January 11, 2016

I won't even attempt to show a photo, but I once saw in a very old farmhouse, an item of furniture that was used before women normally went to hospitals to have their

babies that was called a "birthing chair".

It dated back to the 1870 era or earlier.

The house was a museum of sorts, over 200 years old.

Outside "Water Closets" and such..

It also had "speaking tubes" that you could shout in to summon servants that connected to the kitchen from the master bedroom.

sipi · January 11, 2016

Hammock. 60 baht from a lady that pops in occasionally on a motorbike.

Great for rocking the kids to sleep, the teens kick back on their mobile phones, oldies just use it to relax, or collecting coconuts. Any tree becomes a bedroom.

We buy 4 at a time.

pgrahmm · January 12, 2016

I like this table because it's a butterfly leaf table and I was surprised to find one in Thailand...Sits 6-8 closed & 10-11 when extended....

Also like these teak half rounded shelves....One for family pics diplayed on both sides & one with nick knacks.....We use them for a room divider either centered round or split like now to offset the bowling alley like construction of Thai builders.....Although the open look in Villagefarang's picture got me thinking about re-arranging....

Third → my wife loves this sewing cabinet that looks like a wooden R2D2....It was my Mom's and still has all the pinking shears/her surgical scissors from WW2 - buttons - cantlevered thread spool holder my Uncle made → kind of a mini time capsule....At one time was my Dad's tobacco box when he'd smoke a pipe once in awhile.....So there's some history here.....Including some stuff made by different family members I brought across....

pgrahmm · January 12, 2016

The one thing I've alway wished I could re-find was one I didn't get back in the 80/90's.....

An antique monks chest.....Ornate with like a double lid....The upper "lid" was actually a seat back so the monk had someplace to sit/meditate while his possessions were kept inside the bottom chest....

I always thought that was an interesting piece - but didn't match the my house (built by a sailing ship captain & the house was built like the inside of a timbered ship - even down to the tilted living room main window like the rear prow of the captains quarters).....

At that time I was into collecting all types of oil lanterns & lamps along with antique hollow stemmed champagne glassses made with different types/methods (harder to find than you think)......

But - I'd still have that monks chest if I'd gotten it.....

pgrahmm · January 12, 2016