Two generations of Honeychurch Antiques: Hong Kong -- Seattle
Glenn & Lucille Vessa -- John & Laurie Fairman in Macau

Thailand in the 60’s. One of my earliest memories of Bangkok was going down to the thieves market in the old Chinese section of the city and prowling the antique shops with my mother. It was a place that foreigners rarely went to – crowded, noisy and dirty with smells that both exhilarated and assaulted the senses. My mother, Lucille, would take me to the darkest antique shops that were filled from floor to ceiling with dusty glass cabinets of porcelains, bronzes, pocket watches, stone carvings and strange wood deities. 
One day, with one dollar in my pocket, I discovered a small ceramic box in the form of a turtle.  The old merchant smiled and told me it was Sawankalok ware made five hundred years earlier, perhaps by a child not unlike myself.  When I turned the box over in my hand, I saw five small fingerprints impressed in the clay! I was hooked. I have been looking for those fingerprints ever since – a small signature by a man, a woman or a child, on something created of need, but embellished with a beauty to brighten their own world, passed from generation to generation.

My wife, Laurie and I now travel to Asia several times a year in search of those signature crafts. Ten days after we were married in September of 1977 we opened our first business, Honeychurch Antiques, which is now located at 411 Westlake Avenue North, just two blocks away from Glenn Richards. For more information about Honeychurch please view our website www.honeychurch.com.

Our travels take us to Japan, China, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and India where