Asian Antique Furniture
The simplicity of Classical Chinese Furniture has drawn admirers from both the East and West for centuries. Value and rarity often depend upon wood variety, age and construction. Mr. Waterhouse is skilled in identifying the exceptional from the provincial. The difference often only being a sublet characteristic in wood grain or carving. Classical Chinese furniture is often constructed from three varieties of tropical hardwood (huanghuali, zitan and hongmu) or of less desirable domestic softwoods. The wood used is often the first consideration when placing a value on an object. Alteration and repair are the second most important consideration when valuing Classical furniture. Often furniture will have replacements and repair or simply be reconstituted from recycled elements. Rebuilt furniture was often acquired in Asian post 1950.
Chinese classical furniture is symbolic of the Ming and Qing dynasties whose master craftsmen used hardwoods such as rosewood and padauk. These woods are hard, corrosion-resistant, have distinct textures, and furniture fashioned from them is beautiful and durable. These raw resources are now rare and expensive.
Most of the furniture in these dynasties were hand-made using padauk, rosewood, and other superior quality hardwood as raw materials. With sophisticated production processes, elegant and simplistic styling, graceful sculpting, precise and magnificent mortise-and-tenon structure, and flowing lines, its enduring charm is still enjoyed today.
Mortise and tenon involve the concave-convex splicing between two components, as the protruding part is named the tenon and the recessed portion is known as the mortise. They fit perfectly together when combined with no need for nails.
The style of Chinese furniture is chiefly well-proportioned and implies a sense of unity, harmony, and calmness.
Huanghuali belongs to the rosewood family of trees with the finest huanghuali having a translucent, shimmering surface with abstractly beautiful figured patterns. Its color can range from reddish-brown to golden-yellow.
Zitan is an extremely dense wood also from the rosewood family and is black-purple to black-red in color, and its fibers are filled with deep red pigments. This wood is used for intricate carvings as well.
Much of the dark heavily carved Qing period Chinese furniture is made from hongmu. Also known as blackwood, it can appear like zitan but lacks the deep lustrous surface and the crab claw markings of zitan. There is another light variety which can be difficult to distinguish from huanghuali is also encountered.
In the last decade, the scarcity of Huanghuali and Zitan has resulted in the prices for good quality 18th & 19th-century non-court but merchant class furniture to rise.
Many fine examples of well carved and traditionally Inspired Hongmu or Hualimu furniture have archived strong prices, in the $5,000-$20,000 range. Prices unheard of 10-15 years ago for “average” classical style furniture.
