I recently returned from Vietnam and (oddly enough), fell in love with many of the old wooden benches and stools that we saw lining the outdoor street vendors of Hanoi. Does anyone know the rules or possible restrictions of bringing some of those home on our next visit?

We talked with a few vendors who expressed they would gladly sell them to us as they laughed and said they would prefer the newer plastic pieces. I know there are restrictions on antiques, but wondered if anyone knew about transporting this type of furniture via a container or freight...

It is certainly legal to export it, but it will cost you far more than what you pay for the furniture to ship it home.

Kathy, Thanks for your reply. I am sure you are absolutely correct... do you have any experience with inexpensive shipping options from Vietnam. We checked with the airline and to box up a few of them would have cost us $135 to the US, but we were thinking of getting about 10 or 20 of them and then giving them as gifts back home. The airline will not do this for us. Also, wouldn't the government frown upon this? I am not familiar with the export laws in Vietnam, but it seemed like customs would not be cooperative with this type of thing. Couldn't these old benches be viewed as antiques?

I seriously doubt that the government would view these old benches as antiques. Indeed, my guess is that if you made it known that you wanted lots of them, the government might even help you aquire them (for a price of course). I expect that once the supply ran out, they would be glad to make more of them and "make them old."

I have checked on furniture shipping from other countries (Thailand and Indonesia). If you're serious about this, visit a furnture store in VN and ask them who they use to ship overseas.

Countries have bans on exporting antiques, but they mean things like antique Buddha images or other items of the country's "patrimony," not picturesque chairs and benches.

I think your biggest ussue will be on the U.S side with customs, import duties etc. You should check with an Imfort Freight company on the U.S side first.

Message: I agree that even shipping by surface, which would be the slowest and the cheapest, will probably cost you more than the actual price of the bench, but if the benches are really cheap, it may be worth it to you. US Customs offers exemptions from import duty for items which are considered handicrafts, not sure if the benches would qualify. If the benches are state property, I agree that you should work with the city or state government to export them, they may be willing to give them to you for free and/or qualify them as handicrafts. You might be able to hook up with a local importer in your state who imports furniture from Vietnam to try to take advtagne of bulk shipping rates. Could take some doing, but if you really want them it might help keep the costs as low as possible. Take a look at the US Customs service webpage at customs.ustreas.gov.

The other thing I have to mention is that taking old untreated wood items from a humid country like Vietnam and bringing them to a relatively dry place like the US will most likely result in the benching cracking over time as they dry out in their new climate. Wooden nails can become so loose that they fall out. I have had some unfortunate experiences with this as I lived in Hong Kong and Singapore for 10 years and now live in Switzerland, and several of my pieces have cracked over the last 2 years. Some of the cracks look fine as part of the antique, but some make the piece difficult to use, i.e. a bench. Just something to be aware of.