XI. The Antique Police: You don’t have to be a diplomat to own one. (Ambassador Sets, Part Two.)

After World War II, ambassador living room sets did not fade away, they simply evolved to adjust to changing tastes. They acquired carving: 

and arguably over-the-top bone inlay (thanks to us Bulakeños):

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, bone inlay was sometimes added to existing older furniture, resulting in questionable style choices – would you care for bone inlay, with beads and heart shapes?

Let’s add pillars:

And pillars and flowers:

As the 1950’s rolled in, designs became progressively more informal and rudimentary, including the use of easier-to-design and -construct wooden backs rather than (my preferred) solihiya:

And greater angles of recline:

By the 1960’s, the freshness and innovation originally associated with this type of domestic furniture when it originally came out during “peacetime” were just about exhausted.

In general, my family and I are partial to simple ambassador designs, such as this one:

And this one:

You can take us out of Bulacan, but you can’t take Bulacan out of us, so bring on the bone inlay:

We may not be diplomats, but we definitely have taste (of some unspecified kind).

What about you?

Originally published on 22 September 2006.  All text and photos copyright ©2006 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.