So, all that fancy furniture in Trump Hotels?

[MineralMan]

I'm betting that it arrived in containers shipped from Shanghai, China. Check out this page on luxury hotel furniture made in China.

http://www.made-in-china.com/Furniture-Furnishing-Catalog/Hotel-Furniture.html

Googling Luxury Hotel Furniture China brought that up, along with a number of other sites. China makes a lot of furniture, including gilded stuff and fake antique furniture. I can't imagine that Trump got his stuff anywhere else.

[PJMcK]

1. Dana Milbank had an article about his stay at a Trump hotel

Here's the link from DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028171424

Interesting choices from a guy who wants to "make America great again."

[MineralMan]

2. I remember that post.

In fact, it's what led me to look for fancy and gilded reproduction furniture. It's a big deal in China, where they make container loads of it for hotels around the world. It's remarkably cheap, too. Remarkably cheap.

I saw a gilded grouping of 18th Century reproduction gilded wood, upholstered hotel lobby furniture, about eight pieces, from one Chinese manufacture. The price: about $2500 for the whole set, FOB Shanghai. Sofa, two chairs, side tables, coffee table, lamps, etc.

You can buy some of that same crap for your house if you like, from a number of online and mail order companies. I don't advise it, though. They're poorly made and poorly finished. They look fine from a short distance, but won't withstand close inspection. Just the sort of thing expensive hotels like, so they can look extremely posh on a Sears budget.

It's just Trump's style. I suspect that his penthouse apartment and Mar A Lago are both furnished with that expensive-looking, but really shoddy junk furniture.

Container loads of it are shipped to the US. Check out some of the fancy furniture in expensive hotels, casinos and other such places. Look at the back sides and undersides of it. It's cheap crap, finished to look like priceless antiques. All junk.

[PJMcK]

3. This made me laugh

Great line: "You can buy some of that same crap for your house if you like, from a number of online and mail order companies."

This should be an advertising promotional line: Live like the Donald!

I hate hotels that try too hard for their style.

[displacedtexan]

4. They sell that fake "luxury" furniture crap in Chinatown in SF.

High end prices for gaudy gold-painted junk. Grant Ave. has several stores full of that crap, and they're always having massive sales because no one wants it.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, they do. Nobody wants it in their house,

but hotels are another matter. Nobody looks closely at hotel furniture, so crap will do. It's all about first impressions. The hotel furniture market is full of cheap stuff from China, Indonesia and other places. All made by poorly paid workers and pretty only on the outside. As long as nobody really uses it, it looks OK for quite some time.

People are easy to fool, really. Even rich morons like Trump. He wants to live like Louis XIV, and he can buy stuff that looks like that period without spending millions. He wants his hotels to look luxurious. Hey, you can get all this pretty, gaudy stuff on the cheap, shipped over in containers full of it. Furnishing a hotel is a costly thing to do, so this kind of imported crap is in almost every luxury hotel around the world.

Everything is pretty on the surface. Close inspection is not recommended. Flip that fancy silk-upholstered, gilded chair in the lobby upside down next time you're in a place like that. Have a look. It's all bogus inside. Just like Trump.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Worked a Trade show in Chicago

in the late nineties. Every piece of Furniture and House Ware Items were purchased by the Chinese Government at ridiculous prices. All of it was put in containers and shipped back to China. Remember these Guys could care less about Patents and Trade Arrangements. The Office Coffee Equipment we Represented came back into our Market within six months,prefect knock offs,even came with fake I.D. tags. Basset Furniture had their whole line at the Show Counterfeited with in six months.

[MineralMan]

8. Yup.

They've done the same with 18th century museum pieces, too. Indonesia is another center for making knock-off antique reproductions. Often, they have finishes that get sticky in hot humid weather. Cheap lacquer and shellac based finishes.

Wayfair, the online home furnishing outlet has a whole line of the stuff. You won't find country if origin info both their website, though. China and Indonesia are the sources of much of their fancy, antique-looking stuff.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Prefect copies,

you really have to look for the tell tail signs. If it is panel furniture,the sheet goods separate with lack of humidity. Hummel collectors are getting hammered with the knock off crap. They even try to copy artist markings.

[yardwork]

9. The Chinese have been notorious for faking things for decades.

They haven't signed any of the international patent or copyright agreements. They pirate everything - books, films, clothing, medicines, furniture - everything is copied.

[SticksnStones]

7. Just finished watching Self/Less...

A film on Cinimax this month....rich guy is dying, buys another's guy body to transfer his mind to (very thin synopsis but it was interesting and I'm laid up with a broken foot so I'll watch anything).

It was clear that part of the film was shot in Trump's apartment.

I'd recognize that gilded crap anywhere ~