Thank you, Marco Polo!

If Marco Polo hadn’t been wandering the world back in the 13^th century, I wouldn’t have one of my favorite words to pronounce, one of my favorite styles to enjoy… or my favorite design blog to read every day.

Polo's 1298 book, The Travels of Marco Polo, became the most widely-read book in Europe. It chronicled the Venetian merchant's 24-year adventure in Asia, during which he spent 17 years in China. Experts now question whether Polo ever even made it to China, but it doesn’t really matter. His popular tales stirred up such a European fascination with mysterious "Cathay" that it continued for centuries, eventually giving us the wonderful decorative style called Chinoiserie (“shin nwahz REE”… wheeeee!!). 



Historical examples of Chinoiserie.
  Left: French  porcelain potpourri holder, c. 1760
Top right: Le Jardin Chinois by Francois Boucher, c.1742
Bottom right: French red lacquer commode, c. 1740

 Derived from "chinois," the French word for Chinese, Chinoiserie style melded fact and fiction. Mostly, it depicted the Far East the way 17th- and 18th-century European artisans imagined it to be. And the Far East they imagined was a whimsical world of parasols, pixies and pagodas.

It was also a world where Europe, China, Japan, India and Persia sometimes overlapped - providing Chinoiserie with many of its most endearing elements.

After all, how can you not love a mustached, European-looking fisherman wearing a Coolie hat... about to cross a delicate latticework bridge... that sits next to a parasol-toting elephant... who's watching a costumed monkey lolling on a tree branch playing a flute? Come on now, you know you have to love it.

At the height of the Chinoiserie craze in the 1750s, however, not everybody did. One musical-monkey-weary critic wrote:

"Every chair in an apartment, the frames of glasses and tables must be Chinese: the walls covered with Chinese paper filled with figures which resemble nothing in God’s creation, and which a prudent nation would prohibit for the sake of pregnant women."

Okay, so that guy clearly didn't get it. The fanciful and sometimes over-the-top aspects of Chinoiserie were an integral part of its appeal. That was true in the 18th century and it's still true today.



A few examples of today's Chinoiserie
Top left: Waverly Canton Bazaar Fabric
Top right: Chippendale chair, Wisteria
Bottom left: Thibault Shrangri-La Wallpaper 
Bottom right: Theodore Alexander table

It's a style that endures, with fabulous new room designs, charming decorative accessories, knock-your-socks-off furniture and beautiful fabrics and wallpaper still coming onto the scene every day.

And nowhere is today's Chinoiserie chronicled better than it is on my hands-down favorite blog, Chinoiserie Chic. 

Beth Connolly, the blog's author, is a prolific poster with a discerning eye. Her never-ending research and unabashed enthusiasm for her subject make Chinoiserie Chic an astounding visual love letter to the best of today's "Chinese-esque." It would make Marco Polo proud.

A warning before you click, however: Prepare to be transfixed. Prepare to feel your breath catch as you scroll through one show-stopping post after another. And prepare to spend an entire day doing just that - because you won't be able to tear yourself away once you begin.

Okay, you've been forewarned. So what are you waiting for? Grab a cup of tea and start clicking!