Chiang Mai was one our our prime furniture/accessory/antique sourcing areas for many years when Marla and I had our business. Only an hour flight north of hyperactive Bangkok, it has an unique old city charm with walls and moats and hundreds of beautiful and often elaborate Buddhist temples…
The nice thing about Bangkok hotels on the Chao Phraya River is that their boats take you places, most importantly, Central Pier (Sathorn), where you can walk to the Saphan Taksin station for the air conditioned BTS Skytrain close by. Our hotel boat was running about every 20 minutes so…
I have loved crystals and mineral specimens since I was a small boy. I still have my first book on rocks from my mother. My mom and grandmother took me to interesting locales in northern California looking for fascinating specimens. Their enthusiasm for the outdoors really helped ignite my interest…
I have had a number of passions over the years and one of them is a love of Asian art. Japan captured my interest as a small boy when my mom showed me a Japanese Satsuma bowl given to her from her mother. While taking care of grandchildren in Dallas…
Marla and I made reservations for a tour of Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art on our recent trip to Waikiki, something we have wanted to do for many years. The tours quickly sell out and also necessitate transport by a special bus from the Honolulu Museum of Art. We…
The first Advertising Poster we purchased for our home was from “Librairie Elbe” on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris. On every trip to Paris, we walked by to see what they were selling. The photo above is Marla in front of the gallery. This was our first…
Gio Ponti designed the incredible Denver Art Museum structure 50 years ago. After years of effort, the the renovated and greatly expanded north building opened as the Lanny and Sharon Martin Building. We purchased tickets for the opening gala before Marla’s illness. As the date approached I asked…
A visit to the the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was on our itinerary while visiting our grandson in Boston last April. I read about the museum over the years and watched the Netflix program, “This Is a Robbery”, about the unsolved robbery of 13 priceless masterpieces in 1990…
Marla told me years ago,…”If you choose to collect ‘stuff’, you are in charge of cleaning it!” I love my stuff so it is a small price to pay. If you visited our home I am sure you would be thinking, “Dick must…
We were a little sad but also happy our Buddha sculpture was heading to the Denver Art Museum. Last year Marla and I worked with Tianlong Jiao, the former curator of the Asian Art Department, to reunite the sculpture with its original Burmese pavilion. We donated the 19th century pavilion…