Ancient furniture and space. Show. Visual effect

There are two aspects to appreciate the ancient furniture in China: vertical and horizontal. Based on history vertically, Ming-style furniture has the highest achievement, followed by qing-style furniture and Republic of China furniture. The horizontal direction can be divided into two lines. One is genre. Ming style is based on Soviet style, while Qing style is based on Cantonese style. Second, the material technology, generally arranged as Huang Huali, rosewood, old mahogany, and then all kinds of old wood.

Five elements of appreciating ancient furniture

Generally speaking, the higher the artistic content of a piece of classical furniture, the greater its economic value. We can evaluate the value of antique furniture from the following five items.

Material-the first condition of a good handicraft is beautiful texture, such as white jade in Hotan, Xinjiang, end stone in inkstone, rhinoceros horn in horn carving, etc. If the texture lacks rarity, there will be no fine products, treasures or even peerless handicrafts. Because the best materials must be the rarest and rarest, and they are irreplaceable, which produces a kind of value from nature. The same is true of furniture. There are not many precious woods like Huang Huali and rosewood, and some of them are even extinct. As for the recently developed rosewood and rosewood, their textures are different, which is another matter. After the Qing dynasty, a large number of old mahogany furniture appeared, including chicken wing wood and iron wood. , is also a fine material. Most of these hardwoods are produced in India, Thailand and Hainan, China. After more than half a century of use and polishing, they still have bright luster, showing the natural beauty of wood itself. White wood also has good materials, such as nanmu, especially golden nanmu, which is also expensive.

The accumulation of time is very important for a piece of furniture. A period has its own artistic characteristics and brand of the times. Because the main function of furniture in the historical circulation process is to use, most furniture will be damaged or destroyed when people use it. The older you get, the more likely this kind of injury is, and the less things will survive. The rarity determines the value of the collection. For example, a half table made of beech in Ming Dynasty is more valuable than a modern rosewood cabinet. With the deepening of the collection of ancient furniture, many collectors and enthusiasts now turn their attention to the old mahogany furniture in the Republic of China. Although its history is not as long as that of Ming and Qing dynasties, the irreproducibility of old mahogany furniture shows the charm of furniture in the Republic of China.

Craft is called furniture craft, including the shape, structure, workmanship, carving and inlay of the object itself. While inheriting the furniture art of the Song Dynasty, the furniture of the Ming Dynasty got new and greater development, thus determining the plastic arts based on lines. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, due to the participation of many literati, the furniture in Ming Dynasty was full of a bookish atmosphere, which produced a bright and refined style and became a model of China furniture.

Influenced by the Baroque and Rococo styles after the Western Renaissance, qing dynasty furniture penetrated into China's furniture production with western craftsmanship of exquisite carving and gold inlaid with jade. This style is the most prominent in Guangzhou products and is appreciated by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. Due to the one-sided pursuit of decoration and sculpture, as well as the arbitrary enlargement and roughness of materials, the furniture structure is weightless, gorgeous, dignified and over-carved, but it looks cumbersome and tacky, lacking the concise and bright artistic charm of Ming furniture. Generally speaking, qing dynasty furniture is not as successful as Ming Dynasty furniture. However, qing dynasty furniture has its own characteristics. He is good at using various technical means such as carving, embedding, tracing and stacking. Therefore, when we evaluate qing dynasty furniture today, the quality of its carving, painting, piling and other techniques has become the main appreciation standard.

In the Republic of China, with the change of people's living conditions and the influence of foreign furniture technology, furniture became more and more commercialized and more mechanized, such as turning technology and veneer technology, and the collection value was greatly reduced. Valuable furniture in the Republic of China is still an antique product dominated by manual and traditional crafts.

According to the use and function of ancient furniture in China, categories are usually divided into three categories: hall, study and bedroom. Among them, the hall furniture is the most valuable, because the hall is the facade of the official residence or private house, and the owner will create the atmosphere of the hall at any cost. In addition to the building itself, furniture has become the most important means of decoration and display. Because in the past, the rich people's houses and gardens were integrated, the living room furniture became garden furniture.

Hall furniture often presents such a display mode: eight chairs, four pairs of chairs in the middle of the hall, mostly plush chairs. Marble hanging screens are hung on the walls on both sides. There are railings in the hall, in front of which are long upturned tables, tables for tables, arhat beds, screens and clothes hangers. The material of these hall furniture is at least old mahogany, even mahogany and yellow gorgeous. In Hong Kong, a piece of Ming-style mahogany four-stool furniture was sold for HK$ 654.38+2,000. Overseas, the auction price of a 12 folding rosewood screen exceeds 2 million yuan. Recently, Shanghai auction house sold a set of eight chairs and more than four plush chairs in the Qing Dynasty for 3,654,380+0 million yuan. These are all hall furniture.

Typical study furniture includes desks, drawing tables and incense sticks. Antique cabinet, antique shelf, table, piano table, rose chair, etc. The value of study furniture is also high, because the study is the world of literati activities and the cultural atmosphere of study furniture is particularly strong. Strive for perfection in the production process, and the combination of practicality and artistry is perfect. These furniture are generally relatively small, harmonious in proportion, simple in style and have a light and elegant atmosphere. Especially in today's generally improved housing conditions, it is no longer an extravagant hope for people to own a study. With this research, people will look for compatible furniture. With the increase of this demand, the value of antique study furniture will increase greatly. For example, the auction price of A Qing dynasty elm antique shelf is 6.5438+0.6 million yuan, and the auction price of a pair of Qing dynasty rosewood antique cabinets is 600,000 Hong Kong dollars.

In the collection value of ancient furniture, bedroom furniture is the worst, and the old mahogany furniture in the Republic of China can best reflect this. For example, a few years ago, the market price of "Big Sanlian" (that is, three big cabinets) was around 30,000 yuan, but today's price is only half of that at that time. In addition, the market price of dressing table is around 4000-5000 yuan. In fact, its materials and workmanship are higher than that of the writing desk, but the price of the dressing table is only half of that of the writing desk, and it is still difficult to make a deal. There is also an old mahogany carved bed with large materials and fine craftsmanship. But there are not many buyers. Why is the collection value of bedroom furniture the worst? There are three reasons: first, the change of residential building structure, the original furniture has obviously not adapted; Second, the poor cultural atmosphere, focusing only on practicality, has long been out of date; Third, the technology and materials are flat, and there are few fine products and treasures. However, one kind of bedroom furniture is another matter, and that is the ancient boudoir furniture. Although it belongs to the "inner room", this kind of furniture is quite exquisite, such as imperial couch, embroidered pier, incense candle and so on.

Complete ancient furniture is easy to be damaged and incomplete in the circulation process. Compared with antiques such as ceramics, jade articles, bamboo and wood tooth carvings, the restoration of furniture is less difficult. But when we appreciate the collection of ancient furniture, the integrity of furniture is still very important. At present, there are many trimmed furniture in the antique furniture market, commonly known as "shaving". This kind of "scraping the head" is varied, some are patchwork, some are awesome, and some are stealing the column. These have destroyed the value of ancient furniture. At present, the renovation methods of ancient furniture abroad are more advanced than ours. The purpose of restoration is very clear, that is, to make efforts and make a fuss about it, even if it is supplementary materials, it will never be sloppy, and everything is to restore the complete original appearance.

Understanding the elements of appreciating ancient furniture, such as material, technology, age, category and completeness, will provide a basis for identifying furniture. To identify a piece of furniture, we must first find out what material it is, whether it is rosewood, rosewood, nanmu or beech. What kind of materials have what kind of value; Secondly, find out what era it is, whether it is Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, imitation of the Republic of China or modern imitation. There is a conceptual problem here, which is "generation" and "form". For example, "Ming-style furniture" refers to the furniture produced in the Ming Dynasty. If it is "Ming-style furniture", it refers to the furniture of the Ming Dynasty, and it can also be furniture imitated by the Ming Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty, furniture imitated by the Ming Dynasty in the Republic of China, and even contemporary imitations. Now some businesses often play with words to deceive people in this respect; Third, technology, category and integrity.

Besides, I am recommending a book to you.

Appreciation catalogue of ancient furniture in China

Chapter One: The primitive Gu Zhuo is simple and full of vitality.

Section 1 Primitive Social Furniture

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Second, the origin of furniture

Three conclusions

Section 2 Furniture of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

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Second, the characteristics of furniture in slave society

Three conclusions

Chapter II Colorful, Romantic and Magical

Section 1 Furniture during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period

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Second, furniture technology has entered a new stage.

Three conclusions

Section 2 Empty Tools in Qin and Han Dynasties

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Great development of furniture technology in Han Dynasty

Three conclusions

The third chapter reveals the new style, elegance and nobility.

……

The fourth chapter colorful world gorgeous embellish yan

Section 1 Furniture of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Section 2 Furniture of Five Dynasties

Chapter V Mature, Popular, Concise and Beautiful

Section 1 Song Dynasty Furniture (Liao and Jin Dynasties)

Section 2 Yuan Dynasty Furniture

Chapter VI National quintessence, simple, exquisite and beautiful

Chapter VII Richness and Elegance

Chapter VIII Antiques still have their essence.

appendix

postscript