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The furniture of Ming and Qing dynasties, like other works of art in ancient China, not only has profound
Chinese nation
Cultural and artistic heritage, but also with elegant, practical functions, endless aftertaste. The collection of Ming and Qing furniture began in the 1930s. Foreigners began to collect and buy Chinese furniture from Ming and Qing dynasties in large quantities and shipped it overseas. In the following decades, Westerners elevated Chinese furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the same status as other Chinese cultural relics.
- Chinese name
- Furniture of Ming and Qing dynasties
- Foreign name
- Qing Ming Dynasty furniture
- plot
- China
- categorize
- furniture
catalogue
- 1Basic information
- 2Major distinction
- ▪Ming style furniture
- ▪Qing dynasty furniture
- 3Characteristics and evolution
- ▪evolution
- ▪peculiarity
- 4Analysis of carved patterns
- ▪Direct reference
- ▪Simplified extraction
- ▪Abstract extraction
- ▪Exaggerated extraction
- ▪Decomposition and recombination
- 5appraise
- 6Market potential
- 7Distinguish between false and false
furniture
In the 1950s, Wang Shixiang and other experts participated in the formulation of legal provisions on the export of sandalwood, Huanghuali and other Ming furniture. When the furniture outflow peaked in 1985, Mr. Wang once again appealed to the cultural relics department, but furniture vendors completely ignored this regulation. A piece of
Rosewood table
Beyond sea
Auction price
Up to $325,000, or 2.7 million renminbi. The gap between prices at home and abroad has been unable to stop the outflow of classical Chinese furniture. After 1985, market preference
Su Zuo
Ming style furniture, widely made, and Beijing made, to the end of the 1980s due to the market
Hardwood furniture
Reduced supply in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shanxi and Fujian
Quanzhou
,
Xiamen (in Fujian Province)
The Ming style wood furniture has become the main object of dumping. To the early 90's this kind of very Chinese folk flavor
Folk furniture
Started walking into New York,
London
International auction houses in Hong Kong and other places account for more than 30% of antique furniture in each auction. Taiwan classical furniture manufacturers set up factories in the mainland to receive goods and repair, pull back to Taiwan to hold professional lectures,
Stir-fried emotion
Promotion. Taiwanese began to focus on antique furniture, showing the Chinese understanding of their own national art.
Some experts point out that in a variety of traditional collections, such as Chinese calligraphy and painting, ceramics, antiques and other prices remain high, Ming and Qing furniture is still not
International market
There is a huge difference in the price, there is a lot of room for appreciation in the future, should be very potential
Investment project
. Some people have estimated that the annual appreciation rate of Ming and Qing furniture is about 20%, which shows that the collection of Ming and Qing furniture does have great appreciation potential, and the collection of Ming and Qing furniture is a very promising value preservation
Investment behavior
.
With the passage of time, the old Ming and Qing furniture retained by the folk will be less and less, the price will be higher and higher, and the reality of the lack of resources will be more and more difficult to meet the strong desire of collectors. Under this general trend, people will settle for second best and naturally turn their eyes to what is available
Antique furniture
Especially love those fine materials, fine workmanship,
Both physical and mental
Antique furniture boutique, because whether on the value of its rare and precious wood, or its artistic value has the potential to increase.
Ming style furniture and
Qing style furniture
The distinction is mainly based on the style, form and level of the work. Generally in the Qing dynasty Qianlong as the boundary. He Dynasty
Sheng Thanh
In the past, it can be incorporated into the Ming formula. Qing style refers to the period from Qianlong until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. Compared with the Qing style, the Ming style has a higher level. The shape of Ming style furniture is perfect, elegant style, decent decoration and excellent technology, which is incomparable to other times in history. Ming furniture inherited the excellent achievements of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, the social economy developed highly and emerged
Germination of capitalism
The city is unprecedentedly prosperous, the citizen culture has also been greatly developed, and the development of furniture art has been tremendous
impetus
. In the early Qing Dynasty, the country was not yet settled, no time to pay attention to art, and the economy had yet to recover. In the Kangxi period, decisive victories were won both militarily and politically, and everything was waiting to be done, so the focus had shifted to economic development. With the further consolidation and strengthening of the regime, there was an obvious trend of Manchu and Han convergence in culture, and the furniture art could continue to develop on the high achievements already made in the Ming Dynasty. The furniture of the early Qing Dynasty has strong characteristics of Ming style furniture and still has a very high level and quality
Aesthetic value
There are many fine products. During the Qianlong period, furniture was promoted and accelerated by the upper level, on the one hand, according to
Ruling class
Interesting and innovative, while infiltrating some Western factors, greatly enriched
History of Chinese furniture
The content of...
Modern Beijing
Palace sum
Royal garden
In the preservation of a lot of works of this period, can be described as a variety of excellent, dizzying.
Arhat bed
Arhat bed
The Ming Dynasty is the development of Chinese classical furniture
Golden age
.
Ming style furniture is mostly made of hardwood
Huanghua pear
Rosewood is the most common. Structure using small structure splicing, use
Mortise and tenon joint
The shape pays attention to the function
rationality
With diversity, both in line with the physiological characteristics of people, but also rich and elegant, is the combination of art and practical, Ming-style furniture is rarely painted, there is no too much decoration, highlighting the wood texture, reflecting the beauty of the material, forming a fresh and elegant, bright and simple style. Ming style furniture is simple and simple, bold and regular,
Qing dynasty furniture
Exquisite workmanship, grace and elegance. Ming style furniture
Yellow rosewood
Mainly, other woods are rarely used. Ge Huang
rosewood
Furniture, with tables and chairs, cabinets more, no inlay and
engrave
There are very few carvings. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, because of the lack of yellow rosewood, it was changed to red sandalwood processing.
Rosewood furniture
The large pieces are very few, the width of the wood is generally not more than eight inches, the wood material is good, the carving is less, and the inlay is not done. According to experts, there are more than a dozen kinds of rosewood wood, according to different materials, its
Price difference
The larger and most expensive are
Gold star rosewood
.
Furniture of Ming and Qing dynasties
Ming and early Qing Dynasties
Furniture manufacturing industry
The unprecedented prosperity can be attributed roughly to two reasons, one is the cities and towns
Commodity economy
Generally developed, the pursuit of social fashion has stimulated the supply and demand of furniture from one side; Another reason may be related to the opening of shipping, the influx of hard wood, so that artisans have room to play, competing to produce furniture that exceeds the previous generation in terms of robustness and beauty and utility.
What is called
Ming style furniture
It generally refers to the gradual development on the basis of inheriting the traditional style of furniture in the Song and Yuan dynasties. From Ming into Qing, to quality
hardwood
As the main material of daily living room furniture began to appear. It was originally called "cabinetwork". At first, this kind of fine wood furniture was
Areas south of the Yangtze River
The area mainly uses the local rich
beech
After the Ming middle period, more selection
Flower pear
,
rosewood
And other varieties of wood. At that time, people collectively referred to these beautiful patterns of wood as "cultural wood". Especially after the direct participation and active advocacy of literati in the late Ming Dynasty, this kind of fashionable furniture was immediately popular and quickly spread with a distinctive style image. Fine wood furniture has durable practicality and meaningful high
Aesthetic taste
With an outstanding artistic style, it becomes
Chinese nation
A pearl of art in the history of civilization. This kind of furniture was produced in the Ming Dynasty, the characteristics of The Times are distinct, so it is called "Ming style".
Late Ming and early Qing
Social unrest, but the development of furniture did not stop because of the war. Furniture from the shape, technology, decoration, materials and other aspects are increasingly mature. A large number of imported hardwood wood such as rosewood, pear,
rosewood
All get
Upper class
and
literati
The love of... Among them, the color is elegant and the pattern is beautiful
rosewood
Become a production
High-end furniture
The preferred material. Domestic wood such as southern and
Huanghua pear
adjacent
mesua
,
beech
Used for decoration
Chinese box
Kiwa
Gall wood
As well as specially made cabinets of camphor wood, etc., are widely used. There are reliefs on the decoration
engrave
As well as a variety of curves and lines, both rich and controlled, so that the furniture of this period is rigid and soft, and it shows delicacy in cleaning;
cupric
hinge
Handles, fasteners or other accessories add an effective decorative effect to the furniture just right, and complement each other in color.
The variety of furniture is more abundant than ever before, not only tables, cabinets, boxes, but also
couch
Class, chair and stool class,
Several cases
Class, screen class, etc., of which the most concentrated appeared in the early Qing Dynasty. According to different
Process characteristics
The practice is obviously different, can be divided into rosewood, pear, mahogany and
faggot
Make, etc., different from each other. The wood furniture in the early Qing Dynasty is
Ming dynasty furniture
In the boutique, many wood furniture style is honest and thick, the shape is thick, reflecting the aesthetic taste from the folk. In wood furniture, Jin as the best, Hebei, Shandong also has no shortage of excellent works, boutique.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were few innovations in furniture, and the characteristics of size expansion and old-fashioned form appeared. However, with the political stability and prosperity of society, the rulers reflected in the pursuit of furniture, one is to increase the volume, and the other is to decorate blindly.
After the middle of Qing Dynasty,
Soviet-style furniture
New features have also emerged, with popular throughout the country
Beijing style furniture
They influence each other and retain their own characteristics and historical status, and are unique in various styles of furniture in the Qing Dynasty. subfurniture
Process technology
and
Plastic arts
Speaking of which,
Qianlong
It reached its peak in the later period. The style of Qing Dynasty furniture in this period gradually became clear, and it really showed that"
Qing style furniture
"The unique aesthetic comes.
The understanding and mastery of the characteristics of these two times furniture styles is a prerequisite for us to appreciate furniture and identify furniture.
(1) Characteristics of Ming furniture
The style characteristics of Ming Dynasty furniture, detailed analysis has the following four points:
1. Concise shape, mainly line
Strict proportional relationship is the basis of furniture modeling. The partial and partial proportion of Ming furniture, the proportion of decoration and the overall form, are extremely symmetrical and coordinated. The lines of its various components are straight and beautiful. Rigid and soft, the line is stiff but not stiff, soft but not weak, showing concise, simple, elegant, generous beauty.
2. Rigorous structure and fine work
Ming furniture
Mortise and tenon construction
, very scientific. Use less glue without nails, do not suffer
Natural condition
Wet or dry effects, the production of the use of pooling and other practices. In between the large span of parts, set with
Dental lamina
, dental strips,
Voucher orifice
,
Collar edge
,
Old man
,
Overwang Cheng
,
Luo Guo Cheng
,
caryophyllum
Wait, it's beautiful, it's enhanced
fastness
. Ming furniture
Structural design
Is an excellent combination of science and art.
3. Moderate decoration, simple and appropriate
The decoration techniques of Ming Dynasty furniture can be said to be diverse, carving, enacting, inlaying and describing are all used. Decorative materials are also extensive,
enamel
,
Spiral survey
Bamboo, teeth, jade, stone and so on, all refuse. However, never take too much, nor do you want to carve, but according to the overall requirements, make appropriate local decoration. For example, on the back of the chair, make a small area of transparent carving or inlay, in the local table, impose short old or stuck flowers. Although it has been decorated, but as a whole, still do not lose the plain and elegant nature; It is appropriate and the icing on the cake. The most prominent feature of Ming style furniture decoration theme is the large number of motifs with auspicious connotations, such as Fang Sheng,
Disk length
, Wanzi, Ruyi, Yuntou,
The back of the turtle
,
trisquare
Compared with the Qing furniture, the implication of the Ming furniture decoration theme is mostly elegant and elegant, which enhances the elegant temperament of the Ming furniture.
4. The wood is hard and beautifully textured
Ming furniture
Grain of wood
Natural and beautiful, showing the image of feathers such as the face of the beast, people have endless reverie. Make full use of the advantages of wood texture and play to the natural beauty of hardwood material itself, which is the Ming Dynasty
Hardwood furniture
Another outstanding feature of... Hardwood furniture of Ming Dynasty, most of the yellow pear, rosewood and so on. These premium hardwoods all have a natural beauty of tone and texture. In addition to fine workmanship, the craftsmen in the production, at the same time, do not add paint decoration, do not make large area decoration, give full play to, make full use of the color of the wood itself, the texture of the specialty, the formation of their own unique aesthetic taste, the formation of their own unique style.
Characteristics of Qing Dynasty furniture
Qing dynasty furniture
From the point of view of development history, it can be generally divided into three stages. The first stage is from the early Qing Dynasty to the early Kangxi Dynasty, which is still a continuation of the Ming Dynasty in terms of the level of craftsmanship and the skills of artisans. Therefore, the furniture modeling and decoration of this period are still the continuation of Ming Dynasty furniture. The shape is not as thick and dignified as the middle period, the decoration is not as elaborate as the middle period, and the materials are not as generous as the middle period. And, in the early Qing Dynasty
rosewood
There is no shortage of wood, and most of the furniture is still made of rosewood. After the middle period, rosewood gradually decreased, and more redwood replaced it. In the early Qing Dynasty, because it was not long and the characteristics were not obvious, there were no more handed down works, this period was still in the inheritance period of the previous generation, and the furniture style could be called Ming style.
The second stage is Kang Xizhi
Jiaqing
. This period was a stable period of social politics and a developed period of social economy in the Qing Dynasty, which was recognized as the "prosperous age of the Qing Dynasty" in history. The furniture of this stage also follows
Social development
The needs of the people and the progress of science and technology. By the Qianlong period, the golden age of the Qing Dynasty, furniture production reached its peak. These furniture materials are excellent, delicate work, especially for decoration, fully demonstrate the prosperity of the nation and folk customs. These grand furniture styles, with
Previous generation
It represents the mainstream of the Qing Dynasty and is called "Qing Style" by later generations. Qing style furniture, generally speaking, there are the following two points:
1. Solid and solemn in shape
Since the Yongzheng Year, new varieties of furniture, new structures and new decorations have emerged, such as folding desks, kang grids, kang bookshelves and so on. There are also new ideas in the decoration, such as black gloss paint
Inlaid mother-of-pearl inlay
, Bora finish,
Pinch wire enamel
Let's wait. alternatively
The character "fortune"
Long word, cloud and so on painted in
girdling
On, is also a new method of Yongzheng time. The furniture of this period changed from the neat and graceful of the previous generation to the thick and solemn. Prominent for the use of materials, large size, rich body. The shape of master chair in Qing Dynasty can best reflect the characteristics of Qing style. It has a large seat, a full back and strong legs. The overall shape is majestic and solemn like a throne.
2. Seek more, full, rich and gorgeous decoration
In the middle period of Qing Dynasty, furniture features prominently and becomes a representative of "Qing style furniture". Qing furniture is famous for its gorgeous carving and painting, and its decorative patterns correspondingly reflect this aesthetic style. On the basis of the Ming Dynasty, the theme of furniture decorative patterns in the Qing Dynasty has been further developed and broadened, and plants, animals, landscapes, and people are all rich. Qing style furniture decoration, seeking more, seeking full, seeking wealth, seeking gorgeous. A variety of materials and a variety of processes. Even in a piece of furniture, many means and many materials are used. Carving, embedding, tracing gold and taking, snail survey, wood and stone. At this time, the furniture, the common whole body decoration, no blank, to achieve unprecedented richness and brilliance.
Auspicious pattern
In this period is also very popular, but the popular patterns in this period are mostly close to the lives of the people for the purpose, compared with the Yangchun snow of Ming furniture, it is somewhat secular. The decorative patterns of furniture in the late Qing Dynasty were mostly pieced together with the names of various items
Auspicious words
, as"
The deer and cranes share the same spring
","
Have a surplus every year
"Early birth of your son", etc., and the furniture of the court nobility uses "auspicious clouds holding day" and "auspicious clouds holding Day".
Two dragons play with pearls
", "Hongfu Qi sky" and so on. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Western culture and art were gradually introduced into China. After Yongzheng, imitation of western patterns was flourishing, especially in Qing Dynasty
Cantonese furniture
There has been a combination of Chinese and Western furniture, that is, to make a Chinese traditional system, and to carve Western patterns, usually a similar shape
peony
The pattern of this pattern appeared relatively later in the era.
Craftsmen in the Qing Dynasty advocated using several techniques on a piece of furniture at the same time, such as carving and inlaying, and painting
gild
Copper or enamel, etc., the use of materials is also becoming diverse, common furniture with jade, teeth, rattan, porcelain and so on. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the handling methods are more diversified and complicated. Such as rosewood appeared in this period
Inlaid porcelain
armchair
, glass
Incense table
inlay
Jade piece
Insert screen
And the enamel throne are unique furniture decoration techniques in the Qing Dynasty.
The third stage is
Daoguang County
Later to the end of the Qing Dynasty. To Tongzhi,
Guang Xu
The social economy is going from bad to worse. Also, due to foreign countries
Capitalist economy
The import of culture, culture, and the church transformed China's originally self-sufficient feudal economy,
Foreign culture
Infiltrate with it
Chinese territory
. The style of furniture in this period is no exception to be affected and changed. The style is influenced by Rococo in French architecture and French furniture. womanly
Beauty of curves
, too much decoration. The wood is not noble, and the work is rough.
Direct reference
The extraction method refers to the direct reference of some patterns with beautiful composition, simple style and certain cultural significance in the furniture carving patterns of Ming and Qing dynasties. There are many stylized patterns in Ming and Qing furniture with simple and concise external characteristics, in line with modern people
Aesthetic standard
Can be accepted and loved by modern people, and easy to mechanized production and processing. Such as some simple dragon, crutch, flower pattern,
Cloud head pattern
,
Ruyi stripe
,
Ice crack
,
Circle grain
,
swastika
and
Geometric pattern
Such carvings, as well as some Chinese characters such as "fu", "Lu", "longevity" and "xi", can be directly quoted. Figure 1 shows some simple geometric patterns on Ming and Qing furniture
Fundamental form
We can directly extract the application or as a combination of changes to extract the basic pattern; Figure 2 is an ice crack in modern times
Chinese style sofa
The side application, quite a bit elegant and quiet; Figure 3 is the basic shape of some ruyi or cloud head patterns extracted, which we can directly act as
Fit pattern
The border can be used, and it can also be combined with other patterns to make combination changes.
Simplification and extraction is an extraction method that simplifies and summarizes complex and cumbersome patterns, and removes complicated levels and trivial details on the basis of grasping the charm and essence of the original pattern, so as to make the main image more concentrated and condensed, thus forming a simple and generous extraction method without losing the general characteristics and beauty of the original pattern. Many animal, plant and geometric patterns in furniture carving patterns of Ming and Qing dynasties can be simplified and refined on the basis of maintaining their original connotation and meaning
Modern furniture
Design in progress. Figure 4, 5 and 6 are correct respectively
Phoenix design
,
drakework
and
Curly grass
The grain is simplified and refined, and the pattern is simple and generous, without losing the charm and beauty of the original pattern theme. For another example
curryweed
It is a commonly used theme in furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties. In addition to being directly extracted and applied, it can also be simplified and refined to obtain some more concise basic shapes. Figure 7 is the simplified and refined rolled grass pattern, which retains the general characteristics and line trend of rolled grass, which can be directly applied or used as the basis for further combination changes.
For simplifying and refining patterns, we should pay attention to the problem of "degree", small changes for changes due to the large amount of engraving work
Production efficiency
The role of the low situation is not large, and too simple and can not guarantee the original flavor of the pattern, so the decorative appeal of the furniture is also weakened. Therefore, in the case of a wide variety of pattern themes, there is no fixed method to simplify it, and the general principle is to simplify it on the premise of retaining the charm of the pattern, so as to achieve deformation and unchanged god.
Abstract extraction methods are used
Geometric deformation
The method of
Traditional pattern
The image is changed and sorted out, usually using geometric straight lines or curves to abstract and summarize the shape of the pattern, and summarize it to form a geometric form, which is concise and bright
Modern beauty
.
fret
, crutch,
Cirrus moire
These are abstract patterns of success created by our ancestors. For example, the pattern on furniture in the Qing Dynasty is made of bronze
Thunder streak
Abstract derived from it, it is the geometric form composed of the lines of thunder, meaning auspicious long. Another example is the various forms of crutch stripes in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which was originally correct
Dragon design
As an abstract variation of geometric lines, it is also a very successful abstract pattern.
FIG. 8
, 9 is
Modern furniture
On the tradition respectively
Bat pattern
The abstract abstraction made by the phoenix pattern is simple and the original image is highly refined
Abstraction and generalization
At the same time, it is also convenient for mechanized engraving processing. Figure 10 attempts against tradition
Taotie design
The eyes, nose, mouth and other features of the head are combined with cirrus moire to make an abstract geometric curve treatment, which looks like a Taotie, and a combination of cirrus clouds, with simple modern beauty.
Exaggeration extraction is a kind of extraction method to highlight, exaggerate and emphasize some features in the pattern, so that the original image features are more vivid, vivid and typical. Its refining methods mainly include local exaggeration, overall exaggeration and dynamic exaggeration. Local exaggeration is the strengthening of a certain part of a pattern, changing its proportion and structure in order to strengthen the theme and increase the decorative effect. Figure 11 The gluttony pattern carved on the legs and shoulders exaggerates the five features, strengthens its dignified and solemn expression, and reflects a domineering spirit. Form exaggeration starts from the whole of the pattern, omits the part or details, and highlights the shape characteristics of the exaggerated object. The Ruyi pattern carving in Figure 12 amplifies and exaggerates the ruyi shape, and the shape tends to be streamlined, with a strong decorative effect. In addition, the linear shape has a dynamic exaggeration, enhance the dynamic and
Rhythm sense
In order to express its more unique image characteristics. Exaggerated refinement of the applied pattern makes the furniture more personalized and special charm.
Decomposition and recombination are based on the designer's intention to segment and shift the pattern object, and then recombine it according to certain laws
Composition of a picture
A method of refining. The purpose of decomposition is to recombine and extract elements, and extract useful components, elements, genes, symbols, etc. in the original pattern art composition. Pattern decomposition can generally be decomposed by rules and
Free decomposition
Two kinds, the former is the pattern according to the horizontal, vertical, fan, oblique, network and other forms, to decompose regularly; Free decomposition is to make various free and arbitrary decomposition of objects according to the needs of design composition. The methods of reassembling patterns mainly include overlap, repetition, combination change or addition. FIG. 13 and 14 show the application of repeated combination of the decomposed loops and the basic shape of the "X" pattern, rich in rhythm and harmony
decorative
It is very suitable for the pattern design of various types of modern Chinese furniture. As shown in Figure 15, attempts to reorganize the design of the roll grass and Ruyi moire, and re-combine or make corresponding changes to the directly extracted or simplified extracted pattern symbols according to the design intention, which is suitable for the carving treatment of the teeth plate and the coiling plate of modern furniture. As shown in Figure 16, 17 and 18, there are some practical cases of decomposing and reorganizing design. They organically integrate tradition and modernity. When reorganizing patterns, they combine the meanings and associations of The Times
Characteristics of The Times
The pattern image is integrated into it, making the pattern image more rich and perfect, with strong characteristics of The Times.
Can be judged from the selection of materials, molding, engraving, Mosaic and other decorative techniques. Mass adoption
hardwood
Made of furniture, but also make full use of its beautiful pattern. In many furniture treasures, you can see that the best materials are usually used in the most prominent parts of the furniture, such as: the core board,
Core plate
The drawer face and the back plate are all made of beautiful materials to achieve decorative effects.
The classical furniture uses raw paint and hot wax. In order to
waxy
95%
Bee wax
To be appropriate, and then wipe wax polishing, so that the surface of the furniture bright and clean, smooth corners.
Carving technology
Fine, creative, and with the stone has an abstract style, elegant lines, dry enough, not afraid of cracking. Modern imitation Ming and Qing furniture multi-purpose paint instead, interface saw marks, mass production, new stone, complex lines, easy to crack and deformation, with nails and adhesive. The ancient furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties is very heavy, while the new furniture is lighter, as long as the move can be roughly known.
The future market continues to rise
"Both financial giants and proven collectors are calling for the return of art. And has exquisite craft value, high appreciation value and
Historical value
the
Classical furniture
Is undoubtedly the best representative of this art, believe with the domestic Ming and Qing furniture auction
Brand effect
Gradually embodied, classical furniture
Market situation
There will be a new outbreak.
First of all, the material of classical furniture is precious and scarce. The inventory of classical furniture that has repeatedly set auction records in the auction market in recent years is made of Huanghua pear, rosewood, rosewood and so on. These precious wood even logs, the high price has reached hundreds of thousands of yuan per kilogram or even higher, so the classical furniture made of these precious wood, the price is surprisingly high is not surprising.
Furniture of Ming and Qing dynasties
Finally, the classical furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties is exquisite and amazing.
Chinese classical furniture
The beauty is not only in the material, but also in its exquisite craftsmanship. The reason is that classical furniture is mostly used by the royal family, and it can be said that regardless of cost and working hours, it is truly crafted and can be called
Chinese furniture
The highest masterpiece of art, so much so that in
Western world
Some people have elevated Chinese classical furniture to the same status as other Chinese cultural relics.
[1]
Ancient furniture and other categories of cultural relics, there are also fake phenomenon. in
Market price
Under the stimulation of continuous improvement, the method of forgery is becoming more and more sophisticated, and forgeries frequently meet the market. Some of the profiteers are even willing to destroy the precious ancient furniture originals in order to make high profits. The falsification of ancient furniture has become a thorny problem that every furniture collector, hobby and researcher cannot avoid. The common forgery techniques are as follows for reference when identifying.
With hardwood furniture
Species of timber
It is difficult to distinguish the characteristics of furniture made of poor wood and furniture made of mixed wood. Ancient China
Traditional furniture
The production materials, such as rosewood, Huanghua pear, Hua pear, Tieli,
㶉ð«
In case of the above special conditions, it is easier to impersonate. In addition, even if the natural color is not consistent with the high-grade wood,
profiteer
Will also arbitrarily change the color, posing as high-end furniture. Due to the difference in fashion, about the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the 2030s, because of the court dignaries, feudal literati high Lai, hardwood furniture expensive black not expensive yellow, so most of the fake wood was painted black, to pretend to be rosewood. Since the 1930s, people's aesthetic perception of furniture has changed, and they have begun to advocate natural color and texture. So, with beautiful wood grain
Yellow rosewood
Color, the value of sudden increase, and a lot of impersonation. Of course, the change of furniture color, furniture manufacturers are also very flexible, in the same era to do false wood color, not only one.
Many ancient furniture often due to poor preservation, component damage is serious, extremely difficult to repair as is, so there are people engaged in grafting, transplantation of non-similar varieties
Residual structure
Together into a difficult to belong to, neither of the ancient furniture. However, this kind of ancient furniture, which is not a donkey or a horse and has little practical value and little collection value, is extremely easy for ordinary people to be deceived. The above forgery techniques are also seen
Frame bed
Change into
Arhat bed
. Because the upper part of the frame bed has many components and can be disassembled, it is easy to be lost in the generation. Furniture manufacturers often cut off the rack bed base after the column, three sides of the rack bed with the bed encircling, imitation as Arhat bed sold. The reason why we need to use common ancient furniture varieties to change into rare varieties is that "rare" is an important embodiment of the value of ancient furniture. Therefore, many furniture manufacturers handed down more and less valuable half tables, large square tables, small square tables, etc., have been transformed into more rare drawer tables,
A long table
Go table. In fact,
speculator
The restructuring of ancient furniture varies according to the device, and the techniques are many, and it is generally difficult to find out if there is no careful study.
The use of complete ancient furniture, disassembled into multiple pieces, in order to obtain high profits. The specific practice is to disassemble an ancient piece of furniture, imitate it into one or more pieces according to the original components, and then mix the new and old parts and assemble it into two or more pieces of original furniture that each contain part of the old components. The most common example is to change a chair into a pair of chairs, or even to piece together four pieces as a hall, claiming that they are old things to restore. This kind of forgery is the worst, which not only has great deception, but also seriously destroys precious ancient cultural relics. If we find in the appraisal that more than half of the components of the identified home are
after-configuration
Should consider whether this is the case.
In order to increase the value of furniture, speculators sometimes arbitrarily change the original structure and decoration. If some people think that the Ming style furniture that looks more "plain" (no decoration, carving) may be earlier. As a result, the decoration on some precious hand-down furniture was deliberately removed to pass off as furniture of an earlier age. This act of falsification is also a kind of destruction.
In order to adapt to the living style of modern life, the high-type furniture is changed to low-type furniture. Furniture is a practical object, and its shape is closely related to people's way of living. After entering modern society, sofa type
stool
Beds entered the homes of ordinary people in large numbers. In order to cater
Something to sit on
Due to the need for lower bedding heights, many inherited chairs and tables were reduced to accommodate them
cushion
, sofa
Preceding crop
Sofa table, etc. Many people often buy low-type ancient furniture after the reform, but also mistakenly think that the ancients handed down to the present people, "the instrument of heaven."
"Leather" on the surface of furniture made of ordinary wood (i.e
mounting
Furniture), disguised as hardwood furniture, sold for a price. The stitching of the package furniture, everywhere above the color and filling to modify, fine workmanship, the appearance can be real. It should be noted that some furniture is for functional needs (e.g
Gig table
In order to obtain a good resonance effect, it is necessary to use non-hardwood frame), or for other reasons, it is necessary to use the package Mosaic method to achieve unity, which is not a forgery.
Soft drawer to hard drawer. Soft drawer is a kind of elastic structure composed of wood, rattan, brown and silk, which is handed down to hardwood furniture such as chair, stool, bed and couch. It is mostly applied to the bench surface, bed surface and backrest. It is more common in Ming style furniture. Compared with the hard drawer, the soft drawer has the advantages of comfort and softness, but it is more easily damaged. Of the precious furniture handed down for a long time, nine out of ten soft drawers have been damaged. Due to making soft drawers
craftsman
In recent decades, it has become increasingly extinct, so many soft drawers on ancient precious furniture have been changed into hard drawers. Hard drawer (a hard part of the board), originally
Cantonese furniture
And the traditional practice of Hui furniture, there is a good craft basis. If the soft drawer frame of Ming furniture is used, choose and
prototype
The same wood, transformed into a hard drawer by fine workmanship, is easy to be deceived, mistakenly thinking that the restored tool is a complete structure and well-preserved original.
According to a contemporary antiquities collector
Tian Jiaqing
Mr. Analysis, Ming and Qing furniture collection hot is nearly 20 years. If from the investment point of view, the appreciation potential of Ming and Qing furniture is not the same, it can be roughly divided into three realms:
There are only two types of furniture with the most appreciation potential: one is Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty furniture made under the guidance of scholars, and the wood is generally Huanghuali; The other is the Qing Dynasty Kangyongqian three generations by the emperor personally supervised, court artist guidance, select the best craftsmen in the country
The Forbidden City
Made in the Qing Dynasty
Palace furniture
The wood is generally rosewood. Beyond sea
Auction market
A piece of such furniture can be auctioned for six or seven million dollars
RMB
Up and down, which 20 years ago might have cost a few hundred dollars.
It is estimated that no more than 10,000 pieces of these two types of furniture have survived. From an investment point of view, although the price is very high today, these two types of furniture are still the most room for appreciation, and almost no risk, but the condition must be rare and preserved in good condition. The biggest problem collectors face today is that there are too many fakes and they are easily fooled. Those who do not know much about Ming and Qing furniture, but have money to invest in this area, may wish to choose to go to some reputable
Auction
This will ensure the safety of the investment.
For those who don't have much money, but are interested in Ming and Qing furniture, there is also
Investment channel
. May wish to choose Ming and Qing dynasties
Folk furniture
Collection, not only the price is cheap, and there are few counterfeits. The reason is simple, the price of these furniture is not much more expensive than modern furniture, but its appreciation space is relatively small, and the value of the preservation of ten years is about a few thousand yuan. This kind of furniture is mostly
elm
,
walnut
,
Chinese catalpa
Wood grade
cork
Wood, from Jiangnan
Artistic value
Higher, most of Shanxi's imitation of Beijing palace style, Guangdong is influenced by the Western style, which is undoubtedly there
Good taste in art
The collectors left a choice.
Appreciating a piece of furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties must be judged comprehensively from three aspects: shape, craft and material. It can be regarded as a fine product with beautiful shape, exquisite craft and excellent material. The following six methods and six steps are universal
applicability
.
The first way to appreciate the furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the crucial first step, is to look at the shape far away, see whether its overall proportion is harmonious, whether the overall proportion is coordinated with the local, local and local proportion, see whether its lines are smooth and powerful, and try to feel its charm. A chair,
stool
For smaller furniture of equal shape, it is appropriate to keep a distance of about 2 meters; Table tables,
Arhat bed
If the furniture is larger, it should be backed up to 3 meters away. When looking at the shape from a distance, it is necessary to look from all directions, the front, side and back must be seen clearly, and must be concentrated without interference from the outside world. If the seller deliberately distracts your attention at this time, be extra alert, because this is often a signal that the home has a larger defect. There should be time between watching
Look away
To prevent the eyes from aesthetic fatigue, look elsewhere or rest for a while, and look back again, often there will be new discoveries. Once in doubt, you can see several times in different time periods, you can also use a camera or mobile phone to take photos, please understand the friend to help advise.
First of all, we must see whether each component has defects, especially some components that are difficult to grasp when making, such as the backplane,
Tie one's head together
, joint stick,
knife
Dental plate, etc., which requires a certain understanding of the characteristics of each component. Look at it again
Mortise and tenon construction
Whether it is tight, and whether the handover of each component is seamless. It also depends on whether its carving is clean and neat, and whether the stitching is clear and smooth. In this step, you can carefully observe the wood grain to see whether its trend is clear, whether the texture is beautiful, and whether the wood grain of each component is reasonable. Reasonable collocation, wood grain harmony and a certain change, if the contrast of the wood grain is large, look patchwork is unreasonable collocation.
The hands are the most sensitive parts of the human body. Often the problems that cannot be seen by the eyes can be found by the touch of the hand, and there are many such examples in our daily life. Touch the furniture with your hand to feel whether its surface is smooth and round, whether the lines are clear and smooth, especially the arc position, the circle position and the line turning position. Some components with a larger arc or more arc can be grasped up and down or slide left and right by hand to feel whether it is rounded and smooth, and there must be a problem if the feel is awkward. A method of touching and feeling with the hand, especially applicable to chairs
goose-neck
,
Seat rim
, handrails and sticks, arhat bed
Banana
Leg,
triskelia
, desk desk
Overwang Cheng
Such components.
You can tap on furniture and identify it by sound. Tapping the panel can determine its thickness, and tapping other parts can determine whether its mortise and tenon structure is tight. Generally speaking, the sound is crisp and thick, and the sound is floating and loose, indicating that there are defects.
Smell in the appreciation of furniture is the biggest help, on the one hand can judge the wood
Moisture content
Whether it meets the standards. If it smells obviously sour and moldy, it means that the wood has not been dried properly, or has been damp due to improper preservation. On the other hand, you can judge the quality of the paint, high quality
Natural lacquer
It is almost tasteless, and retains the original taste of wood to the greatest extent, and the inferior paint has a strong smell, and it is known by a smell. Moisture content standard, fine paint furniture, smell fresh, with a light wood fragrance.
You can also distinguish wood by smell.
Huanghua pear
The fragrance of...
rosewood
ligneous
Huong Trung
With spicy,
rosewood
Both sour and spicy, experts can tell, but once the wood is made of furniture, especially chairs, benches, cases and other furniture exposed to the air, even experts can not judge the material by smell, cabinet furniture is an exception, open the cabinet door can still smell its material.
Ming and Qing furniture is not only generous, beautiful, elegant, but also pay attention to the use of comfort. Probably in addition to the screen, all furniture should personally verify it
Comfort level
. Chairs, stools, arhat beds and other furniture can be
Have a seat
Especially for chairs, pay attention to whether the height of the seat is appropriate, whether it will be suspended, and whether the backplane can be tight to the back. Cabinet furniture should pay special attention to the height, too high, it is not only inconvenient to take and place items, but also cause a sense of visual repression. The table can move a stool or chair to sit in front of it and feel whether its height and width are appropriate.
The comfort pursued by Ming and Qing furniture is a relative, limited, and adequate comfort, so before the human body validates the comfort, the craft ideas of Ming and Qing furniture and China's
Traditional culture
Some understanding, must not use the comfort of western furniture as a metric, otherwise, even if sitting in the most perfect Ming style
Round-backed chair
I'm afraid it won't be comfortable.
