Some French cabinet makers in the second part of the 19th century had a real sense of humour. They started making furniture with a smile - something to get you over your morning grumpiness (which according to my wife I need !). More than 30 years ago, I bought my first chest in this style on one of my trips through France. (...)

The bidding didn’t go the way I wanted. I had set my mind on a fantastic 18th century commode at the auction house on the Presqu’ile de Lyon, France. The regulars didn’t want me to interfere in their business and I was to stubborn to stop bidding. So the price was high and my wife decided to keep it in the family. (...)

Back in 2007 I hesitated when I saw the charming little armadietto in Signora Tancia’s antique store near Pescara, Italy. The patina was obviously wrong, a dark brown paint probably from the fifties. But the cabinet itself was definitely older. The paint helped me get a low price and when the cabinet arrived in our workshop, it turned out to be early 19th century.We asked our great craftsmen to make an exact replica… without the paint!

The set of four folding chairs I discovered in 2004 in a flea market near Leicester, England definitely made you smile. Somebody, over a hundred years ago, managed to create a unique and comfortable folding chair with a sense of humor. We liked them so much that we asked our great craftsmen to make exact replicas. You should have seen our cabinetmakers smile!

The original detailed doors were in two built-in cabinets on the second floor of a house in Sweden that was ready for demolition. I traded them for a bottle of Johnny Walker (Red label). Later we made a great bookcase out of them.

I noticed the table in the courtyard of an Austrian antique dealer. He found it in the attic of a large mansion. We agreed that it was definitely not Austrian, and so we had a long conversation whether it was Italian, Egyptian, Russian, South American or Colonial. Well, the mystery probably will never be resolved; for sure it was almost 200 years old, hand carved and gorgeous.