On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:08:28 -0700, sf > wrote:

> On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:55:46 GMT, "James Silverton"
> > wrote:
>
> >I've never seen anything wrong with "Oriental" as a synonym for "Far
> >Eastern" tho
>
> I was taught that you name your country in the "far East" (like China)
> and Oriental refers to the Middle East. Think "oriental" rugs.

Depends what period and who's writing.

Mid Nineteenth to mid Twentieth century "Orient" could have been
anything east of Suez. Near Orient was roughly synonymous with what
we'd now call the Middle East. "The Orient" China and by extension
other parts of the far east, especially in commercial terms cf
Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company - it got peninsular
from it's start shipping to Spain and Portugal and a little later
Oriental from picking up an Admiralty contract to ship mail to and
from Egypt.

But you're right to point out rugs: in those terms Oriental applied to
much from Asia Minor to the Himalayas. So to in furniture a decidedly
western style with decorative accents gleaned from the east could be
anything from Egyptian to Japanese in influence.

Then there's the Oriental school of paining of the French Second
Empire. :-)


Matthew

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