Hi Folks,
This newsletter is the first of a series from David Alan Collection. I spend about four months each year traveling in the Far East finding pieces for the Collection and shipping them home. Each piece I find has a story and a quality, that I wish to share with you, as well as the flavors of the cultures I move in and through, the warmth and diversity of the people, and the beauty, joy and discovery I experience everywhere. In reading these newsletters, it is my hope that you will be inspired , informed and moved by the people, places and pieces I have found all across the East.
Each newsletter will include a “collection highlight” or two. In this case it will be about Mongolian Cabinets I’m sure this newsletter will evolve over time, as the collection itself has and always will. Thank you for enjoying the Collection, for sharing a bit of your lives with all of us, for being touched by the stunning creativity and beauty of our fellow human beings world wide.
As I look at the new year, I find myself overcome by gratitude for life–for the great people in my life, for our beautiful planet, the freedom to explore it, and the innumerable other things that make up life, its challenges, and gifts. The new year includes the gift of our love and compassion to our friends, family and fellow freeway drivers.
All the best to you in the year to come.
Mongolian Cabinets
These painted wood cabinets may rank at the top of my all-time favorites list. Like other pieces that have to do with food storage or preparation, these pieces have a wonderful energy and bring warmth, color and beauty to any setting. Their consistently simple box form is the backdrop for an endless variety of colors and styles of painting that were done on the front (and sometimes back) panels of these old grain storage bins. The carefully selected pieces that we show in the Collection were found on my trip to Northern China this year. They range from 75 to 175 years old and are comprised of one to six painted panels all with original paint. When they were built, part of all of the top of the cabinets would lift off to access the grain stored inside, though most have been modified by using the original panels as doors or drawer fronts. Much of the beauty of these pieces lies in the expressive country primitive painting on these panels and the patina, accumulated through decades of wear from daily use in Mongolian homes.
Suar Wood
I took this photo of a suar tree in a small village in Central Java earlier this year, as well as the color photo of a village woman on the outside of this newsletter. Safety considerations and the inevitability of the tree’s falling convinced the majority of the villagers to vote to sell this tree, have the bathing area rebuilt by the buyer, add money in the village coffers and have all the payment for the labor of the project go only to the people of the village.
It is good for the village, the people and it allows us to have this amazing wood. Is is situations like these that I look for in my quest for beautiful wood; trees that will be taken down this year one way or another.
By was of another example, many roads in Central Java are lined with mountain tamarind trees. When a road is widened, all the trees on one side of the road are removed and new ones planted when construction is complete. These are the trees that become available to us to make the hand-crafted furniture you see at David Alan Collection.
As I learn more about the people and the cultures I am working with, I am making more sound, ethical, ecologically sensitive and culturally appropriate choices aobut how I impact these amazing people and the land on which they live. I am gratelful for these opportunities to learn from the people I endeavor to serve.
Sumba Stone
This extraordinary stone carving from Sumba Island, Indonesia, was originally a guardian of a king’s tomb. It became available to us because the village elders decided to have a new one carved after this one was damaged in the 1986 earthquake. This piece is one of dozens of pieces of wonderful old tribal carvings in the Collection. In the Sumba tradition of stone carving, figures of turtles, crocodiles, human figures, buffalo horns, horses and dogs were widely used.
These figures in some cases reflect the belief in the invisible bonds which tie man and beast together, though when used as part of a tomb, they represent the possessions (animals, slaves, etc.) of the dead person who was being honored.
Sumba was in the 1980’s, the last of the Indonesian islands to retain a pagan (animist) majority. Even today many of the ancient traditions continue unaltered. The reverence these people hold for the natural and spirit world has long fascinated me, and I look forward to a journey to Sumba in March, personally guided by the man considered to be the foremost authority on and collector of tribal art in Indonesia.
