The Classical Chinese Furniture's group includes pieces
from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
Dynasties. Historical documents demonstrate that
pre-Ming furniture-making was already well developed
both in skill and design, but very little has survived.
As in Wang Shixiang's words, "it is only from Ming
and early Qing times that pieces of furniture of high
quality material and craftsmanship have been preserved
from the large numbers that were made".
Ming and early Qing times are considered the Golden
Age of Chinese furniture; pieces from this period are
high-valued antiques and today is quite hard to find any.
It is necessary to be a connoisseur to recognize and
collect such pieces.

A Qing Dynasty Camphor Trunk

The Qianlong reign period (1736-1795) marks the
beginning of the decadence in the tradition of fine
furniture; still, because of its shortness and the first
appearance of overly elaborate pieces (typical Qing
furniture), furniture from this period is considered
of excellent quality, attract high value and are extremely sort after.
In the latter part of the Qing Dynasty, Classical Furniture
became just a shadow of the ancient tradition and lost
the beauty of simplicity.

Ming dynasty Huanghuali Chairs

We wanted to start this section with a sentence like:
"You won't find such a definition in any books";
but, as a matter of fact you can find one in Kai Yin Lo's
book "Classical and Vernacular Chinese Furniture in the
Living Environment". These categories can be defined in
different ways, what we intend here is to define a specific
group of Chinese furniture that is strictly related to place
of origin and the daily lifestyles of the people that used them.
These kinds of furniture have popular origins and differ
from place to place; most of them were copied following
the Classical Furniture models but all of them were
made out of cheaper and lower-quality wood.
Their age vary between a range of time that goes
from sixty to one hundred and more years ago.

An Elmwood Coffer from Shanxi region ca 1800-1850

Today, this group of furniture is the most common one
in the market; you can find pieces from Tianjin
to Ningbo; from Shanxi to Tibet, all with their
specific characteristics which can vary from town
to town and from region to region.
Because they were handmade following the
traditional patterns and joinery techniques, the
Vernacular furniture are highly appreciated by
foreign buyers, but still they don't have a good
market among Chinese people who care more
about the quality of the wood and want to leave
behind the rural past they represent.

A small Poplar Kitchen Table from Dongbei region ca 1850-1900

All the pieces included in this group are perfect
imitations made nowadays by Chinese carpenters
in the style of the Classical Ming and Qing Dynasties' furniture.

An Elmwood reproduction Bench

Under request they can be modified or changed into
something totally new. The material used for these reproductions
can be selected among the whole range of tropical and
strictly Chinese woods, even the age of the wood itself,
to some extent, can be chosen.

This section is the most controversial one but at the same time
the most fascinating.
The main problem regards the different terminology that makes it
impossible to match the Chinese names with English and
Botanical ones. That's why usually the best way to denominate
the material used in construction is to retain the Chinese names.
Generally speaking, there are two main categories:

- Yingmu or Hardwood
- Zamu or Miscellaneous wood or Softwood

According to Grace Wu Bruce, "Ying mu refers to the richly grained
dense tropical hardwoods of which Ming furniture was made",
but it is important to add that it also refers to the beautiful quality
in grain, streaking and color, as in Chinese sense of beauty, grain,
color, texture and marking, represent the main characteristics in
order to distinguish fine quality woods.
That's why among the Yingmu category we can find woods that
are not considered Hardwood by Western standards, and
why according to the Chinese definition Zamu includes all the woods
not included in the Yingmu category.
Among the Yingmu category, the following are the main woods:
 

A sample of Hongmu wood

   lHuali, that is distinguished in Huanghuali and Xinhuali.
   lZitan.
   lTieli, also called "Ironwood".
   lJichimu, also called "Chicken-wing wood".
   lJumu, also called "Southern Elm" (not really a hardwood).
   lHongmu, that is often erroneously referred to as mahogany.

 

A sample of Jichimu wood

A special mention should go to a kind of wood that is not really a
wood: the Yingzimu.
The Yingzimu, also called Burl wood, is the wood cut from
a large knot or twisted root; it can come from any kind of tree
and it is appreciated for its texture and patterns, that's why it is
usually used as a decorative insert.

A sample of Xinhuali wood

Because, as we said, whatever is not Yingmu is actually Zamu,
it is useless to list all the woods that belong to this category;
it is sufficient to mention that the most common one is the
Yumu (Elmwood).

Furniture made of Yingmu are, of course, the most precious
and among this category, the old Yingmu is more valued and
expensive than the new one.
The Zamu category is a single group, but among this there can
be woods that are actually more valuable than others: for example
the Elmwood (and especially the old one) is better than the
Pinewood.
To make a detailed description of each kind of wood would take
too much space, for further information please refer to our
bibliography & links section.

A sample of old Elm wood

Pieces that belong to this category differ from Vernacular Furniture
in so much as they are strictly related to specific periods of
China's modern history.
The first of these periods is the Republic of China (1912-1949)
or, in chinese, Minguo.
Minguo furniture has a strong western influence and is thus
also known as Chinese Colonial style.
The Cultural Revolution is another of these periods; even
though furniture from this time are honestly ugly and of low
quality, it nonetheless documents a particular piece of China's history.

An Elmwood Desk from Tianjin area ca 1900-1940