Karen Mazurkewich - Chinese Furniture: A Guide to Collecting Antiques

Acknowledgments

Until the early 1980s, relatively little was known about Chinese furniture. In the West, only a handful of good pieces were in the public domain. With the opening of the Peoples Republic of China to the outside world two decades ago, the antique furniture market came into its own. The most experienced dealers were transformed into frontline scholars, sifting through the finest pieces to hone their expertise. It was these hands-on dealers whom I turned to when I decided to write this book. Without their helpproviding photographs from their collections and sharing expertise about regional stylesthis book would not have been possible.

First, I would like to thank Oi Ling Chiang. When I first approached Ms Chiang about a story I was researching on fake furniture for the Wall Street Journal , she shared her insights as we teamed up for a tour of the good, the bad and the ugly in the marketplace. It was her belief that the antiques market should be more transparent. The more that buyers understood fakes and forgeries, the better they could avoid them. And the more confidence they would have in good dealers. By opening the door to this secret world, she inspired me to write a book that would shed more light on this fascinating genre of the Chinese art world.

I would also like to thank Cola Ma, another dealer, who generously shared his insights into the runners of the tradethe scouts who seek out hidden gems in the Chinese countryside for restoration and resale. Cola Ma let our talented photographer, A. Chester Ong, into his warehouse to shoot pieces from his personal collection.

I am also indebted to dealers Andy Hei, his father Hei Hung Lu, and Charles Wong, who also gave us access to their workshops and showrooms to take photographs, and supplied us with additional images for this project. Collector Edmond Chin and Kai-Yin Lo invited us into their homes for some situational images. In addition, dealers John Ang, Albert Chan, Jerry Chen, Christopher Cooke and Amanda Clark, as well as collector Peter Fung generously provided photos from their personal archives. I owe a debt of gratitude to photographers Michael Wolf and Richard Jones of Sinopix who gave us permission to reproduce some of their images. Also, a big thanks to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Hong Kong Museum of History, the National Palace Museum of Taipei and Christies Hong Kong who also provided images. Without these donations, such a comprehensive survey of Chinese antique furniture would have been impossible.

Several people in Singapore also allowed photographer A. Chester Ong into their homes and shops to take additional photographs. I am grateful to Christopher Noto of Pagoda House Gallery, Philip Ng of Luban Zhuang Pte Ltd, Anthony Lee and his daughter Danielle of Just Anthony Antique Furniture, as well as those collectors who wish to remain anonymous.

Ronald G. Knapp, distinguished author of Chinese Houses:The Architectural Heritage of a Nation (Tuttle Publishing, 2005), generously allowed the publisher to use several photos from his book, taken by A. Chester Ong, to illustrate the context of many of the fine old hardwood pieces shown in the book. These photos appear on pages 9, 1213, 21, 33, 74, 85 (top right), 88, 89, 140, 150, 151 (top), 153, 176 (top), 177 (below), 186. Similarly, my thanks go to Sharon Leece and A. Chester Ong for a photo from China Modern (Periplus Editions, 2003), reproduced on page 2, and to Sharon Leece and Michael Freeman for a photo from China Style (Periplus Editions, 2002), reproduced on page 224.

Finally, my thanks to Curtis Evarts for reading a draft of the manuscript. And my gratitude to my editor at Periplus/Tuttle, Noor Azlina Yunus, for her thoughtful contributions.

Fig. 569 A reconstructed seventeenth-century Ming-dynasty reception hall at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the United States. A large folding screen serves as a backdrop to a couch bed and a pair of horseshoe armchairs. Photo courtesy Michael Freeman.

Beds

The traditional Chinese bed or chuang cannot be defined solely by its nocturnal function. It was an all-purpose platform that served as a recliner, banquet table, lectern and meditation platform. It also symbolized the division of labor between the sexes. For men, it was a utilitarian piece of furniture used primarily to read and sleep. For women in wealthy households, however, it was everything. It was the most important part of a womans dowry and remained in her possession during marriage and even after divorce.

During the Ming dynasty and into the Qing, patriarchy prevailed. Houses were divided into male and female quarters. Men, who occupied the front rooms of the house, had freedom to prowl throughout. Women were confined to the inner courtyards. Hampered by bound feet (during the Qing dynasty) and claustrophobic traditions, they were virtual prisoners of their chambers. The bed thus became the center of their world. When the curtains around the canopy bed were drawn, it became a potent symbol of sexual intimacy. But when the curtains were pulled back, the bedding rolled up and tables pulled alongside, the bed became a wifes private reception hall. Soft bolsters, cushions and kang tables added luxury and comfort and allowed women to idle away the hours by eating, playing games and embroidering.

If the horseshoe chair was the symbol of power for men, the canopy bed marked the social rank of wives within the home (Fig. 284). Status could literally be measured by the craftsmanship. The pampered wife demanded an ornate bed decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay or carved scenic panels. A marriage bedor canopy beddescribed in a passage from the eighteenth-century classic novel Dream of the Red Mansion was enshrouded by purple gauze curtains to create a romantic atmosphere. Because of its importance in procreationmost sexual encounters took place in the womens quartersit was critical that beds be made with favorable dimensions and inscribed with symbolic carvings such as plum blossoms and bats to depict immortality, happiness, longevity and wealth. In contrast, there are few descriptions of male sleeping chambers. What we know is that the long, narrow platforms known as day beds were shuffled at whim from study to garden (Fig. 285). Larger versions with three sidesreferred to as a couch bed or luohan chaung were too heavy to move around and usually remained within the confines of a study or bedchamber (Fig. 286).

Fig. 283 Canopy bed, jumu (southern elm), ca. 1850, probably from Jiangsu province. Private collection, Singapore.

Fig. 284 Canopy bed, yumu (northern elm) and changmu (camphor), eighteenth century, Shanxi province. Photo courtesy John Ang.

Fig. 285 Day bed with rounded legs, yumu (northern elm), ca. eighteenth century, Shanxi province. Photo courtesy John Ang.

Fig. 286 Luohan chaung bed with solid railings, jumu (southern elm), eighteenth century. Photo courtesy Albert Chan.