Chinese Furniture: A Guide to Collecting Antiques
Description
The international market for antique Chinese furniture is booming, and masterpieces from the Ming and Qing dynasties are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Chinese Furniture is a survey of these collectibles—from the very best hardwood pieces featured to standard softwood specimens still available on the Asian market.
This antique furniture book presents an overview of carving styles, wood types, regional variations, class distinctions and restoration techniques. It includes detailed chapters on various types of wooden furniture cover chairs, stools and benches, tables and desks, beds, cabinets and bookshelves, doors and screens and household accessories.
With this renewed interest in antique furniture, a forgery market has emerged. Thousands of factories in southern China are churning out brand new or refurbished furniture and passing them off as Chinese antiques. Chinese Furniture unearths these forgeries and serves as an indispensable reference guide for collectors of antique wood furniture.
Praise for Chinese Furniture: A Guide to Collecting Antiques
"Guide is the key word here, since the author is not a scholar. She does, however, pull a lot of information together about subjects ranging from classic 17th-century Ming hardwood pieces to Shanghai Art Deco styles of the 193s, and she carries the exposition right up to the present, with horrible but relevant Western-style examples." —Art & Auction
"Karen Mazurkewich has spent years researching and investigating antiques and manufacturing in Asia. She puts her experience to use in this well-illustrated book." —The Maine Antique Digest
" [Chinese Furniture] shows authentic classics from beds to household accessories, with advice on how pieces were constructed. There is a section on fakes, but identification and knowing authentic ancient to modern looks is the point of this book." —The Smart Collector