During a recent buying excursion, I stumbled across these beautiful lacquered / painted armoires, from Shanxi province in Northern China.  While not nearly as prized by Chinese buyers, who often prefer hardwoods like Hua li or Hong mu, the status of Shanxi painted furniture has nevertheless risen significantly over the years for its beauty and stunning colors and is a favorite of the noted Chinese collector Co La Ma.

Particularly interesting, is this close-up section of a door panel. Notice the change in color and patina which has occurred over the years? Once covered by a brass plate which was removed/lost within the last twenty or thirty years, (possibly during the great leap forward), the left side (where the colors are beautiful and subtle) has survived the years, protected by the brass or iron plate that would have originally been there. The colors on the right are faded and muted by comparison. The effect of daily life, pollution, coal dust and years of rough handling and exposure to the elements is clearly visible.

And yet, it remains beautiful. Known as “Bu Wen Qi” or “Da Qi,” the process used in this style of Chinese lacquering is both complex and unique. The first step would have involved covering the raw wood construction with a base layer of hemp, horsehair, straw or other fabric depending on the period in which it was made.  This allows for the wood frame construction to shift to some degree without damaging the rigid upper layer of hardened lacquer.  On older pieces this sometimes still visible in damaged areas and can be a good indicator of age.

The second step is the application of an even layer of gesso known as “ni zi, ” consisting of plaster mixed with pigs blood (which must be applied within a set period of time lest it spoil). This provides the base material and smooths any impurities or flaws in the wood, straw or fabric below. The third step is multiple coats of natural resin based lacquer, with vibrant red or “ink black” being the two most commonly used colors. Each coat of lacquer must be dried, and carefully wet sanded by hand with a very fine abrasive paper before receiving the next coat. The process is then repeated several times with even the most common pieces receiving at least five to seven coats, until the surface becomes smooth, glassy and mirror like. Finally in the forth step, an artist carefully hand paints motifs ranging from flowers and vases to city scenes to people.

Restoration of such pieces requires a extremely skilled craftsman in order to avoid further damage to the piece and to restore it to its former beauty.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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1. Another cracked laquer effect
2. Chinese Cracked Lacquer Finish
3. A true work of art – The making of a Chinese lacquered room divider/chinoiserie screen

Note: All images are clickable.

A common feature on many genuine antiques is defacement from the cultural revolution or “Wénhuà Dà Gémìng,” a period of great political and social turmoil in China’s recent history. From roughly 1966 to 1976 Mao Zedong launched a massive campaign to destroy the “four olds”, namely old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. During this time, Red Guards burned antique books, ransacked architecture, shattered old porcelain and destroyed or defaced carvings and even whole pieces of furniture. On the table below, the faces have been rudely hacked away.

The “chao tou” or wing-like swooping edges of the table are carved from a single large log with no visual seams or joints; a practice rarely used in contemporary times.

A second clue to its age and origin is the thin layer or coarse horse hair mesh, between the wood and the lacquer. Not quite refined enough to be considered fabric, this rough layer of hair allows the wood below some freedom to expand and contract according the climate and humidity without cracking the lacquer above.

And then there is the original finish, crackled beautifully through the endless passing of time.

Needless to say, this amazing piece of furniture will not be showing up on ebay anytime soon.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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3. Authentic antique Chinese porcelain wares, pottery and oriental ceramics.

Dynasty	Chinese	Pinyin	Links	Period	years
Three Sovereign Ones and the Five Emperors	三皇五帝	sān huáng wǔ dì	(H – E)	before 2070 BC	628+
Xià Dynasty	夏	xià	(H – E)	2100 BC — 1600 BC	470
Shang Dynasty	商	shāng	(H – E)	1600 BC — 1046 BC	554
Western Zhou Dynasty	西周	xī zhōu	(H – E)	1046 BC — 771 BC	275
Eastern Zhou Dynasty Traditionally divided into Spring and Autumn Period Warring States Period	東周春秋 戰國	dōng zhōu chūn qiū zhàn guó	(H – E)(H – E) (H – E)	770 BC — 256 BC722 BC — 476 BC 475 BC — 221 BC	514246 254
Qin Dynasty	秦	qín	(H – E)	221 BC — 206 BC	15
Western Han Dynasty	西漢	xī hàn	(H – E)	206 BC — AD 9	215
Xin Dynasty	新	xīn	(H – E)	9 — 23	14
Eastern Han Dynasty	東漢	dōng hàn	(H – E)	25 — 220	195
Three Kingdoms	三國	sān guó	(H – E)	220 — 265	45
Western Jin Dynasty	西晉	xī jìn	(H – E)	265 — 317	52
Eastern Jin Dynasty	東晉	dōng jìn	(H – E)	317 — 420	103
Southern and Northern Dynasties	南北朝	nán běi cháo	(H – E)	420 — 589	169
Sui Dynasty	隋	suí	(H – E)	581 – 618	37
Tang Dynasty	唐	táng	(H – E)	618 — 907	289
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms	五代十國	wǔ dài shí guó	(H – E)	907 — 960	53
Northern Song Dynasty	北宋	běi sòng	(H – E)	960 — 1127	167
Southern Song Dynasty	南宋	nán sòng	(H – E)	1127 — 1279	152
Liao Dynasty	遼	liáo	(H – E)	916 — 1125	209
Jin Dynasty	金	jīn	(H – E)	1115 — 1234	119
Yuan Dynasty	元	yuán	(H – E)	1271 — 1368	97
Ming Dynasty	明	míng	(H – E)	1368 — 1644	276
Shun Dynasty	順	shùn	(H – E)	1644	<1
Qing Dynasty	清	qīng	(H – E)	1644 — 1912	268

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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1. Sitting on history: Antique expert Roger Schwendeman reads Chinese history by touching and feeling it
2. A brief history of colonial “old Shanghai” style Art Deco furniture
3. Learning Mandarin Chinese: Lesson 052: Chinese Antiques.

In order to match the color of the original wood, the replacement panel must be lightened. To darken a piece there are several methods the most common one being a coat of stain or varnish.  However, in this case the issue is the opposite: the wood here is too dark to match the base color of the original material. So how does one lighten the color of wood? By applying an alcohol based solution and some heat, the color of the wood will essentially lighten thus matching the color of the original color.

The end result would look something like this table sold by EMWA  Furniture in Australia.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. A to Z: Restoring chinese wood carvings, wooden screens and carved architectural elements.
2. Furniture Repairs: Improper restoration causes this “Old Shanghai” table-top to buckle and split
3. The real deal: Looking back a few hundred years at an authentic chinese alter table

(Click images to enlarge)

 Question:

A reputable local beijing based antique Chinese furniture dealer sold us this nice Chinese table. It cracked a few months after getting it.  He has his own shop to produce furniture as well as sell antiques. I am sending you 3 photos, 1 of each side of the table, and 1 of the whole thing.  So there are really 2 large cracks in this poor beautiful old table. Can it be repaired rather than replace the top?

Answer:

Its hard to tell exactly from the photos (which are not so clear) but from what I can see, it looks like this is a colonial old Shanghai (also known as Lao Shanghai) art deco style table. The sides seem missing as normally this style of table has four “pointed” corner plates on the sides which when pulled up/opened (kind of like a drop leaf table) make the table square instead of hexagonal. Maybe they were missing when the item was collected in un-restored form, or maybe it was just too much trouble to replace/repair them. Who knows…

Also, again, its hard to tell from the photos but I think there are probably a number of portions of this piece which are completely new, though I cannot say at what percent without clearer photos. One of the legs “feels” new. I have seen the delicate tops buckle sometimes on un-restored colonial style tables over time, so it would not be surprising if it needed to be repaired during restoration and this is where the problem seems to have occurred. Repairs are normal for this sort of furniture and whats important is not the repair but rather how it was repaired.

Seems the issue with the cracked and split top, is that when the top was repaired, in a few places it seems that new wood replacement boards (glued together) were used, instead of using properly dried wood, old aged wood or reclaimed wood. In door environments, in particular where dry electric heat is used can accelerate this sort of cracking.

That’s probably why the cracking occurred as the wood was still moist and not fully dried. With old and/or reclaimed wood where the wood has had plenty of time to dry this is much less of a problem. The choice of wood used for this section can also have an effect as some woods are more prone to cracking (like pine) then others.

Another give away here is the actual edges on the new boards, as well as the patina itself, don’t match the rest of the delicate nature of the piece. Notice the thickness? There is also visible saw marks in the new boards. In fact, it might not even be the same species of wood. The grain seems much courser on the new boards.

It can be repaired, though the damaged board most likely should be replaced with something a bit more appropriate to the piece and following the recommendations above.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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2. Comparing apples to oranges – more on determining quality in Chinese antique furniture
3. A brief history of colonial “old Shanghai” style Art Deco furniture

Old Shanghai furniture can be roughly broken down into three categories, which correspond to the stages of the city’s development as well as to the style of buildings in which the majority of the population resided. These started with the shikumen longtang, which dominated from the mid Nineteenth Century up until about 1920, through the yangfang longtang, or foreign-style alley houses, of the 1920s and early ’30s, and ending with the high-rise apartments of the mid ’30s up to 1949. Of course, these periods and styles overlapped significantly, and the furniture and housing of earlier periods continued to be used and manufactured throughout the later periods, but the standard division holds.

The shikumen longtang, or stone-gated alley houses, are an architectural form found only in Shanghai; only a few years ago, they still housed a majority of the city’s residents, and they remain a Shanghai trademark, although they’re rapidly disappearing. The furniture of the shikumen is the most “Chinese” of Shanghai’s furniture. While general structure of shikumen furniture varies, with about half following Chinese lines and half more Western, their detailed decorations are invariably Chinese.

The most common example of shikumen furniture is the rectangular stool, similar in shape and design to traditional Chinese tables and alters, but smaller, more practical, and more portable. Decorations between the legs follow traditional patterns. Rectangular stools were once ubiquitous in Shanghai, but are becoming ever less so. Also common are small, wooden chairs with square backs reminiscent of traditional Chinese chairs, but with rounded edges and beveled seats more Western in style. Vertically centered in the backrest is a column of detailed carvings depicting animals, birds, flowers, hearts, and other designs based in Chinese folk art. Other types of shikumen furniture, such as beds, tables, and cabinets, are similarly distinguished by detailed carvings drawing from the folk tradition. Beds throughout all three periods used woven matting, covered with cotton pads, which is typical of Southern China, contrasting with the heated brick kang typical in the North. With the advent of electricity, most shikumen houses were illuminated by a bulb hanging from the ceiling and covered by a white, round, flower-shaped glass shade. These shades are easily found at the Fuyou Lu and Dongtai Lu antique markets and should cost Y20.

Shanghai entered its period of modernization in the 1920s. J.B. Powell, who arrived in Shanghai in 1917, recalled in his memoirs how the city was transformed in the early 1920s by widespread plumbing, sewage, and other infrastructure essentials. Foreign-style lane townhouses — xin shi li nong — emerged in this period, merging the lane neighborhood and garden-and-courtyard structure of the shikumen with modern amenities. Two floors taller, with metal rather than wood fittings, and with indoor restrooms, these were the homes of middle class Chinese and the less-wealthy foreigners. The furniture of these townhouses was predominantly European classical. These subtle yet ornate pieces would have been perfectly at home in an English sitting room or French parlor of the same era. While frilly, flowery, French designs prevailed, Chinese elements could still be found in the smaller details, such as the crescent-shaped pull handles on the drawers.
Many international trends, including in the areas of art and design, tended to converge in Shanghai. The late 1930s and the 1940s were Deco decades for the city, as theaters, hotels, and apartment buildings, dominated by the inspired designs of Laszlo E. Hudec, altered Shanghai’s face. Single family flats, in Art Deco buildings between four and twenty stories, provided an alternative to the multifamily lane dwellings. Paralleling the rise of the apartment buildings emerged a strain of Art Deco furniture, but like previous styles it came with uniquely Shanghainese characteristics. The majority of Shanghai’s Art Deco furniture continued to use the general forms of the earlier styles, but with Deco flourishes taking the place of Chinese or classical details. My Yuyuan Lu stool, for example, is derived from a simple round, four-legged stool that is almost as much a Shanghai staple as the square stool mentioned earlier. Later incarnations added Chinese-style carvings as decoration under the seat and between the legs; examples of these are found in the site of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. The Deco version merely curved the legs and the supports and added Art Deco “teeth” next to the legs.

Interestingly, the standard Chinese square table remained the norm for dining in Shanghai. Cramped living conditions precluded the possibility of a separate dining room for all but the most wealthy, so the longer, rectangular Western dining table never caught on. Versions of the multi-purpose square table, however, can be found in designs featuring the full range of Shanghai furnishing history.

After 1949, the furniture industry like much else shifted focus to function over form. Shanghai families, ever thrifty, continued to use the fancier furniture of an earlier era, and only now with increased prosperity are they looking for replacements. But the Shanghainese inclination to inundate their homes with cookie-cutter Ikea imitations provides the opportunity to grace you home with a waft of the mystery and history of Old Shanghai.

This article is a reprint from http://www.chinanow.com/english/shanghai/city/features/furnitureprint.html  Photos are from ACF China

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

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2. Shanghai Trade Show: Antique Furniture China 2009
3. What Chinese Style Furniture is hot this year?

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• Latin: Tectona grandis (IE true teak).
• African name: Baikiaea Plurijuga (Rhodesian Teak)
• Other trade names: Burma teak, Rangoon teak, moulmein teak, gia thi, jati sak, kyun, mai sak and rosawa.

Teakwood is an average hardness wood from the Verbenaceae family, found in various parts of southern China, Southeast Asia (Burma/Thailand) and India, though it is also grown in plantations in the Philippines, Boliva and Indonesia. Teak is also is found in Africa in places like Zambia and Zimbabwe. It grows in forests at times though not always, near the coast, and is actually not a rain forest wood, despite this common perception. At present, much of the teak coming out today is from Burma, which has a long history of Teakwood trading going back as far as the 14th century and today supplies more then 75% of the worlds teak. The name “teak” comes from the Malayan word “tekka.”

The tree itself, has a straight, but often buttressed stem, a spreading crown, and four-sided branch lets with large quadrangular pithes. The leaves resemble those of the tobacco plants in shape. The branches terminate in small white flowers and the sapwood white. The unseasoned wood has a pleasant and strong aromatic fragrance and a beautiful golden-yellow color, which on seasoning darkens into brown, mottled with darker streaks. The wood is generally straight grained (though at times can also be wavy) and extremely dense, with a square foot of the wood weighing 40 pounds. Its often said to be resistant to termites as well as impervious to splitting, buckling, or rot due to its high content of oils and resinous materials. Of course the downside to this when making furniture, is that Teak can be particularly difficult to glue, because of its oily nature as the natural oils in the wood interfere with a glue’s ability to bond. Its density along with naturally occurring silicon in the wood also makes it blunt tools faster then many other woods.

Teak when used in furniture construction (and thus to be considered during the materials selection process is) generally graded according to the quality and flawlessness of the wood.

1. Zero Defect (Grade A)
   No sap wood, knots, or pin holes and the color and grain are very uniform, without any natural deep black highlighting the grain. Natural sheen to the wood as opposed to a shine. No watermarks.
2. Natural (Grade A and B)
   No sap wood, pinholes or knots, and the color is uniform. Good grain, though some natural black highlighting the grain is allowed. Natural sheen though some shine as well.
3. Rustic: (Grade C)
   Considered to be low grade teak. Sapwood. May be manipulated with chemicals or stains to alter its appearance to look like a sightly higher grade. Visible dark heavy grain.

Because the wood contains naturally occurring elements of rubber and oil, Teak wood is extremely durable and in places like India and in Burma, Teak beams have been known to last in palaces and temples of more than 1,000 years old. Sunken ships in the Atlantic carrying teak timber have been salvage 75 years later only to discover that even after being submerged for close to a century in the Atlantic, the timber remains in perfect condition, with the original saw and hammer marks still visible. Very impressive! A highly prized material, ancient Burmese and Thai royalty considered Teak to be a royal tree. Maybe one reason was because Teak takes more the 120 years to reach maturity from the seedling stage.

Chinese style teak table

Teak has been and continues to be used in a range of applications from furniture, to flooring to shipbuilding. An unusual characteristic of Teak is when it comes into direct contact with iron, the oil in the wood acts as a preservative for the iron (and thus its use in shipbuilding – virtually every passenger liner ever built had a deck made from teak.)

In Chinese furniture, Teak was often seen in western style “colonial Shanghai style” and art deco pieces especially during the 1920′ies and 30′ies. After the first colonizers reached Burma in the early as the 1820’s, furniture ranging from Victorian style furniture to British campaign style to art deco style began coming out of the region and was popular in cosmopolitan cities in Asia. Today Teakwood sculptures, Teak garden furniture, recycled Teak furniture and Teak outdoor furniture are strong sellers, primarily due to the durability of Teak wood. Indonesia and Thailand are major sources for Teak wood furniture.

More info on Teak wood

• History Of Teak Wood
• Wood Properties of Teak

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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2. How to avoid cracking and splitting in Chinese solid wood furniture
3. Guide to Chinese Furniture – Part 1) What is considered an antique?

I have done this myself and its not as bad as it looks, though it takes a few people to do it (I am surprised two was enough). Amazing how the whole thing collapses down, eh? One thing to be careful about – if there is a missing or left behind piece, the whole thing may be impossible to assemble.

The final assembled bed:

I just had a new reproduction Chinese canopy bed made for my home and due to the effort and labor it takes to make one, it cost me about twice as much as an antique one. Bed’s are funny things in that, Chinese tend not to buy antique wedding beds due to superstitions (namely that someone probably died in them and therefore the bed is probably haunted). Consequently antique canopy beds can be often cheaper then reproductions.

Thats good news for this person who is lusting after antique bed for her home!

This person already got theirs: Vifargent: The Bed

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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3. A a vivid example of artistic nudes, photography & chinese antiques

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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Photos of these two cabinets have been floating around on our file server for quite a while and I have been meaning to put them up here as another excellent example of differences in quality between Chinese antique workshops and restoration as well as in Chinese Country Antique Furniture in general. These are both essentially the same piece but restored in a different manner by two different factories. They are both restored antiques, both a once fairly common Mongolian style antique cabinets and even the dimensions are approximately the same. Piece A (bright red one) comes from a smaller workshop owned/operated by George, a gentleman who has worked with Chinese antiques for more then 20 years. He services mostly foreign customers and says he offers “good quality.” The other piece (Deep burgundy red) was purchased from Raymond, a larger volume based, Beijing wholesaler who claims to offer “good quality product.” Lets examine the differences to see which factory really does offer “quality” and which one is simply inexpensive.

Its the details which count

The first place the differences are evident is in the overall attention to detail. George’s cabinet has been carefully restored with extra attention paid to small details. However, Raymond’s cabinet has been sloppily restored. Area’s where the lacquer has been rubbed off have not been touched up and instead, have been given a quick coat of wax instead – thus saving costs on the lacquering. Simple (IE inexpensive) fittings have been fitted to the door, instead of the large, more functional (IE more expensive) hardware seen on George’s cabinet. Even the painting on the doors of the cabinet alludes to “cheap” – its style clearly from the 1970/1980’s and thus the un-restored cabinet itself probably was much cheaper at the time of purchase.

The original un-restored cabinet would have had a round circular style fitting enabling the owner to lock the doors and drawers together in one action. Impressions of the original hardware can still be seen one both cabinets. Possibly removed during the 1970’s during China’s great leap forward the un-restored cabinet may have already been missing this hardware. But on George’s cabinet, the time has been taken to touch up this area so it looks relatively crisp and clean. On Raymond’s cabinet, this element has been skipped over completely.

Then there is the sides of the cabinet. Often embellishments become damaged, fallen off and then lost over time in China’s harsh peasant countryside. Depending on who restores the piece these embellishments may be added back on or sometimes skipped all together. I am guessing the embellishments on George’s cabinet was either retained or carefully recreated true to the original form. On Raymond’s cabinet, a down and dirty board has been added to the side with minimal carving detail (again – cheaper) and an even sloppier painting. Unfortunately we didn’t take a photo of the insides of the cabinet, but if I remember correctly, the shelf inside George’s cabinet was made using a relatively thick board. Raymond’s? A flimsy peice of wood which looked as if it would break before supporting any amount of weight.

So which claim is correct? George or Raymond? On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put George at a quality level of at least 6. Raymond’s cabinet is what Chinese suppliers love to call “rustic,” however, I have seen good quality rustic furniture before and I think “crap” is probably a much better word to describe this piece. I would rate it at a 3 or 4 at most. Interestingly George’s piece a was not much more expensive then the other one – maybe ten to 15 percent. Which piece would you (or your customers) rather have in their collection?

For more on this topic see our previous posts on this topic:

• Determining quality in antique furniture (What is Quality?)

• Do you know what you are selling? Because your customer might not.

• Low Cost vs. Low Quality? You get what you pay for
  

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

Related posts:

1. Determining quality in antique furniture (What is Quality?)
2. Low Cost vs. Low Quality?
3. Guide to Chinese Furniture – Part 5) Manufactured Items