Instead, yellow flowers daubed with black lacquer to resemble black-eyed Susans are substituted.

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Around him, the setting is incongruously serene: black lacquer furnishings against silvery carpets and darker gray walls, a graceful staircase in the center.

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But once inside guests enjoy an elegant lobby with a minimalist fireplace, relaxing rooms with handsome gray marble tubs, black lacquer shutters and fabrics in deep violet and brown hues, all thanks to British designer Anouska Hempel.

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Throughout eight galleries, cranes and egrets roost in gilded screens, eagles swoop down on prey in hanging scrolls, sparrows and swallows variously flit across the black night of lacquer and the pure white of porcelain, and all manner of avian beauty graces works big and small.

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The cabin trim on our test car was an exquisite claret-colored Nappa top grain leather, set off with alloy and lacquer-black wood trim.

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