Chinese Antique Furniture Collecting Guides

Antique furniture collecting can be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds. Chinese antique furniture ( antique Chinese furniture) includes antique beds, bookcases, cabinets, armoires, cupboards, chairs, desks, or other antique furniture.

Each period of history has a corresponding style of furniture that was produced during that time.

"It has a gentle inner strength that seems to contemplate itself with deep contentment," observed 20th -century designer T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-76) in describing hardwood antique Chinese furniture. In fact, most Westerners were astonished when pieces like this Ming dynasty (1368-1644) "horseshoeback" chair came to light in the early 1930s. The restrained elegance and economy of the chair's form seemed to be both extraordinarily modern and to transcend the limits of time. The collector Frederic Mueller (1935-89) commented on the intrinsic "spiritual quality" of the piece: "It is what you can find in a Cy Twombly painting as well as in a Ming chair - something to take you out of yourself."

What was it that caught the eye of these men, and continues to fascinate people today? The sense of harmonious proportion achieved through the simple, pleasing lines of the design? Perhaps the way the rich color and grain of the wood are left to speak for themselves? Or the craftsmanship of the joinery, with elements of its structure visible on the apron and legs?

Maybe it's a combination of all these things, of elegance and simplicity, harmony and utility. Coiling down the splat of this chair in a fury of activity are two ferocious dragons, boldly and dramatically carved. In Imperial China, the dragon was the most auspicious symbol of all, representing wisdom, strength and goodness. Then, just to remind us of the chair's practicality, its front stretcher is a little worn where sitters placed their feet to keep them off the cold floor. But the chair still holds secrets: We don't know who made it, who owned it, or where it was used. This tantalizing mix of mystery and fact brings such a piece to life, and along with its beauty and utility, makes it eminently popular in today's art market.

In building a collection of Asian furniture, it is worth supplementing your instinctive attraction to a piece with knowledge of its craftmanship and history. A number of points to consider are the piece's condition, the materials used in its construction, the quality of its workmanship, and types of decoration and motifs.

Aesthetic Appeal

One of the greatest pleasures of collecting is purchasing an item you have fallen in love with. This kind of response may be immediate and instinctive or may be informed by an appreciation of the artisan's aesthetic. In China, for example, the value and quality of a piece often lay in its achievement of harmonious proportions. Chinese craftsmen made chairs, tables and cabinets in pairs, and they were then placed against a room's walls in a symmetrical, formal arrangement; much thought was given, as well, to the relationship between an enclosed space and the furniture within it.

Condition

Missing veneers and inlays, chips, cracks and dents in the wood, and heat and water damage will all detract from furniture's worth and may require extensive and costly restoration. However, a certain amount of wear and tear is to be expected; a dip in the front stretcher of a chair, bench or table, for example, simply shows that the piece has been used by its previous owners to rest their feet. It is advisable to ascertain the cost of any restoration prior to making a purchase.

Lacquer & Other Finishes
Lacquering techniques have a long history throughout Asia but reached their greatest expression in the hands of Japanese craftsmen. Artisans laboriously applied numerous applications of urushi-the sap of the lacquer plant-to a base material, such as wood. They then dried the lacquer by heating, making it impervious to water, insects, acids and alcohol.

Plain lacquering of items in black or red was most common in China, though these pieces are now rare; Ming connoisseurs especially appreciated pieces that featured duanwen, the crackling that appears on old lacquer. By applying layer upon layer of lacquer and then carving into the surface, artists created exquisitely detailed designs. Also, they often decorated the lacquer surfaces with gilt or polychrome, and embellished them with mother-of-pearl and ivory inlay.

Korean artisans often colored wooden chests by rubbing them with a mixture of seed oil, water and Chinese inks-or red and yellow earth. They then treated the wood with natural oils to produce a subtle sheen. Although these furniture makers also had a keen appreciation of the fresh quality of unfinished wood, few examples have survived centuries of use.

The Joiner's Craft
Asia has a long and proud woodworking tradition. From a very early date, craftsmen used techniques almost as advanced as those of today. The curve of a Chinese horseshoeback chair, for example, is achieved by using up to five different pieces of wood, secured by means of precision joinery. The range of joints used in Asian furniture includes the mortise-and-tenon, mitre, dovetail, and tongue-and- groove. In China, the mortise-and-tenon joint was most prevalent, and on early pieces, it was made deliberately visible to the eye.

Huanghuli Antique Furniture

The most qualified huanghuli furniture was made during Mid Ming dynasty and late Qianlong Emperor of Qing dynasty. Since mid Qing dynast, the materials of huanghuali became less and less to almost dispear. So the furniture made of huanghuali was not produced any more. Till now few huanghuali furniture left. It's the most precious and expensive member of furniture family at present. Huanghuali furniture can usually be classified as Beds; tables; chairs.

Beds: frame bed, babu bed, arhat bed
Tables: square table, strip table
Chairs: folder chair, cap chair, hanging chair, round chair.

Decoration & Motifs
Asian furniture decorators often found inspiration for their motifs and patterns in much older crafts, such as ceramics, textiles or jade carving. Some designs are abstract geometric patterns, while others represent animals, figures and plants symbolizing concepts such as good luck or prosperity. The phoenix, the Chinese lion and dragon are a few of the mythical creatures prominently featured in furniture decoration, and the presence of a five-clawed dragon probably indicates an object's connection to the Imperial household.

Decoration can also provide clues to the identity of a piece's owner. For example, a clothing chest decorated with the Chinese characters for fertility belonged, in all likelihood, to a woman of childbearing age.

Designs can help to date furniture, and so can the ways in which the decoration is handled. For example, a Chinese piece featuring complex carving with repeated patterns generally dates from the 18th century or later.

Wood

The materials used in a piece of Asian furniture often help collectors and scholars to determine its origin, approximate age, and value. Most pieces are made primarily of wood, whether it forms the carcass on which lacquer is applied or is the focal point of a piece. Chinese furniture makers generally used softwoods for the carcasses of lacquered pieces, causing them to be particularly susceptible to damage and therefore relatively rare in today's market. Similar reasons explain the scarcity of bamboo furniture. Other Chinese pieces were made of hardwoods, such as huanghuali and zitan, which are both rich in color and density of grain. Because zitan was in great demand and short supply, its use was restricted to the Imperial household in the 18th century. Older pieces were disassembled for reuse, making pre-18th-century zitan furniture rare and valuable. Chinese seat furniture with its original upholstery is also extremely rare. Usually the original woven seats have been replaced with wood panels or hard cane seats, but this does not greatly affect value.Japanese and Korean furniture makers used light-colored woods such as paulownia and cryptomeria, and also favored the richly-grained zelkova and walnut.

Fittings

Metalwork on Asian furniture includes handles, lockplates, hinges and decorative hardware. Some Japanese and Korean chests are almost entirely covered with such fittings in iron, copper, or brass alloys. Many mounts are plain, while others have patterns incised, pricked or hammered on their surface; some are even lacquered in red or black. It is not unusual for old pieces to have relatively new fittings, which should not affect a piece's value if the fittings have been chosen with care.

Provenance & Maker

While the value of artworks is often affected by the identity of a piece's maker or owner, this is relatively unimportant in collecting Asian furniture. Very few, if any, signed examples are known, nor are we even aware of the names of furniture makers, apart from a handful identified by chance in Imperial household

From: Chinese Antique Furniture (MFG) Ltd.
More information, please visit the site
http://www.lubanfang.com
Edit by Jason

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It is a guide to collect Chinese antique furniture.

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