Order, character and time preserved in China’s classical furniture

Support us Photo: Art Habsburg Visual Archive The first time one truly stands before a Ming-style horseshoe-back armchair, a quiet misperception arises. It does not feel like an antique. It feels like a piece of modern design completed several centuries too early. There is no heavy imperial pomp, no crowded carving, none of the mother-of-pearl inlay so often associated with later Qing taste, no need for gold, jewels, heraldry or sheer mass to announce value. Four legs touch the ground. The arms open outward. The back curves with restraint. Under the light, the grain begins to move. The object is silent, yet its structure, proportion and hierarchy are unmistakable. The value of Chinese classical furniture does not lie in the vague label of “Eastern style.” It lies in the way timber, craftsmanship, bodily scale, spatial etiquette and collecting history enter a daily object and turn it into a form of civilization. According to Shi Hao, founder and director of the Donghu Rosewood Museum in Wuhan, the three great tribute woods of antiquity refer to the precious hardwoods selected for imperial use during the Ming and Qing periods and offered by local authorities or tributary regions.

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