Hi! I am John from ChineseAntiqueFurnitureShop.com. In this video, we are going to talk about windows and people wonder how come there are window fragments available in China. It's because the Chinese have been rapidly modernizing particularly in their cities and they have been tearing down old houses and replacing them with newer buildings. These windows are removed from an older house. This pair was one of much larger original set, but you can see that it is paint decorated and has some wonderful symbols; a dragon and a horse included in it. The one those people ask, well, how can this be used as a window? In winter there is rice paper that's put behind to help keep out the cold and in the summer, the rice paper can be removed to provide ventilation. And obviously, they come in a large variety of different sizes and also in different decorations and the different sizes and different decorations would make these so easy for someone to use to put up on a wall.
The decoration in this one is interesting because instead of using these posts to hold together the interior frame to the exterior frame, previews the decoration to do it. Some windows actually have calligraphy written on it. This is the Chinese calligraphy symbol for double happiness which is double happiness is a good fortune and longevity combined. This one again shows some of the original paint, another interesting design but with the original paint. And again, people ask, well how come these windows always seem to so well preserved if the houses have destroyed? Frankly, not all them are. This little window panel was obviously part of a much larger window and all that's left in good shape, is this small little fragment that's left. Likewise, this one had two posts that went straight through here, those have been destroyed, nobody has repaired them, but it has its original color.
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