Hi everyone. This is my first post in this forum. I'm trying to give my garden an exotic look that hasn't been done to death already. My shady areas are tropical plants while I have succulents and cacti growing in the sun. I have a few fake "artifacts" that I bought on trips to Mexico, but I've had a hard time finding them elsewhere. I'm just talking about terracotta stuff that's supposed to look like Mayan, Aztec, Toltec or Olmec relics. And I don't want to spend a great deal because they'd be out were they could easily be stolen. Does anyone have any idea where I can get these without leaving California?

Cool! Please keep us posted -- One other thought. If you're near some museums and are open to the idea, you might bring it to them for authentification as a prospective donation. (Only if you're open to donating of course.) Why donate? Well, for one thing, so more people could enjoy this fabulous piece. For another reason -- you'll get one heck of a tax deduction! Back in the 1940's my grandmother bought a little silver baby cup at a local garage sale. (She collected silver baby cups to use for serving punch at parties and had amassed quite a collection.) Anyway - something about this piece caught her eye, so she did some research. Turns out it had been made by Paul Revere's shop around the time of the Revolutionary War. Since she lived near Boston, she brought the piece to a museum there and donated it. (And with the tax savings, she bought herself a mink coat!)

A&AE, I have been following this discussion with great interest, because I am going to be decorating with some pieces in the future that are "Japonisme," which is Chinoiserie's cousin, lol! My mom lived in Japan for a year back in the mid 50's and brought back a ton of stuff. Some of it was made more for European tastes. Also, she lived in SF for three years after that and bought a lot of Japanese influenced things to go with what she brought back. I have inherited it all now. So I tend to love Asian influenced things but also I have a style that can be described as "sentimental" or as I call it, "cozy granny" because most of the stuff I like hasn't been in style since granny's day or even great great grandma. I've always liked antiques, but at my age, things that are considered antiques today are the MCM stuff I grew up with. When I was a kid back then, that was NOT the definition of antique! I like stuff from the late 1800's through Art Deco. I like Victorian, but couldn't live with most of it. Arts and crafts is one of my favorite styles and that definitely had an Asian influence. I don't know if Chinoiserie has ever been extremely popular, but right now I am up against a couple of trends which I think are also influencing how a younger generation might view Chinoiserie. One is gender, because my SO for whatever reason, is very strongly against floral things. My dad didn't like floral things all that much either, but he often just acquiesced to my mom and that was fairly typical I think of male/female relationships in the last century and maybe even the one before that. The home was the typical purvey of the "woman of the house" and Chinoiserie was popular with them. I think there is a great deal of sexism in considering certain colors and motif's "feminine" but it's out there and prevalent so there you go. My SO certainly suffers from that cultural conditioning. So now that men are taking a more active role in home-making (at least some men, my SO included) and marital relations are looked at more as a partnership, there's a lot more influence of taste that might be considered "masculine" in the home, from color palettes to art and furniture styles, like the "industrial" trend. Not to say that men don't like florals and women don't like gears, but I know in my decorating dilemmas, it is often gears vs flowers and we tend to compromise on styles and designs that are less extreme--abstracts, geometric stuff, etc. I'm not sure what will bring about a revival of the taste for Chinoiserie or even Victorian or antique anything. Folks are more transient nowdays and aren't as inclined to devote themselves to a set aesthetic in their homes. They want a flexible look. So I think individual pieces of Chinoiserie will always be popular, like art, dishes, fabrics and accent furniture. I think the total look will remain popular with only a few folks who can afford it. Because of the transience, I am afraid the days of those gorgeous Chinoiserie influence wallpapers are gone forever, at least in big common spaces in homes. While I love the look, even I myself would not go for it, because I would want to be able to more easily change out the look of a room from season to season or year to year. But I have little vignettes of Japonisme all around my current home. When I have some time, I may post some of them. Here's a quickie, just something I totally threw together. The framed pictures are very old calendar pics that my mom had from back in the 50's in SF. They are just there right now to fill up the space and hide the very ugly white back of the shelving units. They will go on the wall eventually, and my mom's collection of Japanese dolls will go in the unit when I get it properly set up and the glass doors installed.

I agree, Anneliese and want to add that some of his quotes cover subjects I never thought deeply of until I read his thoughts on them, and he is a cat-person! What's not to like?