Ming and Qing furniture: the evolution from "home" to the market

["Easy Shooting Global Business Daily" December 2012 feature exclusive copyright cooperation, please do not reprint]

Sixteen-piece huanghuali in the 17th century, with a transaction price of $102.25 million / approximately RMB 6,839,900, Sotheby's in New York, September 16, 2009

Huanghuali rose chair in the early 18th century, the transaction price was 116,500 US dollars / about 727,400 yuan, Sotheby's in New York, September 16, 2009

On October 7 this year, China Guardian held the first time in Hong Kong, cautiously launched two special exhibitions of Chinese painting and calligraphy and Ming and Qing furniture, all of which achieved a good start, showing the stability and enthusiasm of the furniture market. In this historic first shot, the total sales volume of "Viewing Hua - Classical Furniture and Courtyard Furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" reached HKD 101 million, among which "The late Ming Dynasty Huanghuali single-plate carving Ganoderma lucidum The case was won by HK$10.3 million. The material of this case is heavy and the head is flying. The baffle is transparent and transparent with the whole material. The most special thing about it is the case. It has been inlaid with flowers and bees and butterflies. Now that it has fallen off, you can still imagine the gorgeous shape of its completeness.

Coincidentally, in the special auction of "Shengri Fanghua" in Jiade this spring, another 3.2-meter-long Huanghuali single-plate squatting case was sold for 32.2 million yuan. The shape is magnificent and elegant, and the cocks at both ends are raised upwards, bringing a heavy case to make it stalwart without losing its power. The wishful moiré baffle between the legs of the case is also an excavation. This is an example of the luxurious use of huanghuali aniseed materials in Ming furniture, which was recorded in the "Hundred Hundred Wood Figures" by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 1996.

It can be seen that the performance of Ming and Qing furniture in the current auction market and the degree of popularity are evident. The point of strength in the auction market - Ming and Qing furniture used to be only the objects that people use every day to meet the most basic needs of people. The superb decorative art of furniture comes from the simple needs of human beings: from the ground to the foot.

The few things that people used to live in and out of time were the first items that were supported and relied on by people who were sitting down. From then on, we can see a route of Chinese furniture evolution, which rose from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: from stools, chairs, tables to everything needed in the interior, racks, boxes, cabinets, and today. Other later types that are cherished (most of which are full of personal tastes, such as screens, incense, etc.). In order to cater to the needs of the increasingly luxurious palace aristocrats, the growing wealthy merchants and the literati, the furniture with both practicality and beauty has emerged.

Overseas collections are earlier than mainland China

Once upon a time, Chinese people's understanding of Ming and Qing furniture was limited to its practicality and beauty, and there is still a long way to go from the current market economy value. The market of Ming and Qing furniture was first promoted by Western collectors, and then gradually completed the "turning" from export to domestic sales. Why?

Ming and Qing furniture can be valued by the West, and gradually establish an overseas market. A foreigner and his book play a key role.

100 years ago, China's Ming and Qing furniture was not listed as a major business item by the antiques, but only as a fixture. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, new and young businessmen pursued fashion and began to use Western furniture. This trend even affected the last emperor Pu Yi, the master of the Confucius Temple in Qufu. To the Republic of China, classical furniture began to receive the attention of some Westerners and Chinese architects. Young scholar Gustav Ike is one of the important members. When studying ancient Chinese architectural art, the Ming Dynasty furniture that was set in the garden attracted Ike, and he began to collect and study Ming Dynasty furniture. With the assistance of Mr. Yang Yao, Ike published the first book “Chinese Yellow Pear Furniture Drawings”, which introduced Chinese Ming Dynasty furniture in 1944, and became the first person to introduce the Chinese Ming Dynasty Huanghuali furniture to the world.

Ike (1896-1971) was born in Germany and specializes in aesthetics. In 1923, he was invited by the famous patriotic overseas Chinese, Mr. Chen Jiageng, to be a professor at Xiamen University with scholars Lu Xun, Lin Yutang and Deng Yizhen. When Fu Jen University was founded, Mr. Aike was appointed as a professor of aesthetics at the school. He taught in China for 26 years. During the period, he was invited by the ancient architects Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunyi to become the only foreign member of China's "Building Society". Later, Ike and his wife Zeng Youhe have been teaching and spreading traditional Chinese art abroad. Zeng Youhe and his late Ming Dynasty huanghuali furniture were shipped back to Beijing from Hawaii, USA, and donated to the Gongwangfu Management Center, including two huanghuali cabinets, two pieces of huanghuali small strips, huanghuali circle chair, and huanghuali marble long plan. 2 pieces of Huanghuali double stool. Among them, 5 are examples in the book "Chinese huanghuali furniture map".

At that time, the "Chinese huanghuali furniture map test" was still in the Jurassic version, all hand-printed and bound. Although this book did not attract Chinese interest (not translated into Chinese version), it has a great influence in the West. It has caused the attention of European and American collectors on Chinese furniture. Westerners who admire simplicity seem to be destined to pay attention to simple Ming furniture earlier, so that overseas collections are far ahead of mainland China. In fact, in the wave of arts and crafts reform in the early and mid-20th century, many outstanding Western modern design masters were inspired by Chinese Ming Dynasty furniture.

In the decades after the publication of the "Chinese Huanghuali Furniture Drawings", this category of furniture has been upgraded by overseas collectors to the same status as other Chinese cultural relics. Famous European and American collectors and antique dealers include American antique dealer An Siyuan, Alice Boney and Chinese antique dealer Li Yukuan and collectors Arthur M. Sackler, as well as Americans who have lived in Beijing for many years. William Drummond, and Curtis Evarts, curator of the California China Classical Furniture Museum from 1990 to 1996, Belgian collector Philippe De Backer) and so on.

Hong Kong has many large collectors

In 1985, Wang Shizhen, a relic of artisan connoisseurs, published in Hong Kong, which was published in Hong Kong. He also eagerly aspired overseas collectors to eagerly demand furniture from Ming and Qing Dynasties. A large number of artifacts were smuggled into Hong Kong and Macao and flowed abroad. (Note: 20th century In the middle and late 1940s, many precious huanghuali Ming Dynasty furniture were taken away by foreign diplomats in China at the time, which led to the loss of some precious Ming and Qing furniture to Europe and the United States in the early days.

In this wave of "exports", a large number of large collectors have emerged in Hong Kong. For example, Chen Lihua, who is known as the "Queen of Red Sandalwood", built the first red sandalwood museum in Beijing; "Queen of Huanghuali", the owner of Jiamutang, Wu Jiaen, whose business involves the whole world; Hong Kong industrialists and investors, and one of the top five collectors in the world Xu Zhantang set up a "red sandal furniture exhibition room" in his private museum as early as the late 1980s; and Hong Kong doctor Ye Chengyao also collected 68 pieces of Ming-style yellow from the mainland and overseas from 1988 to 1991. Rosewood furniture, and in 2002 at Christie's in New York auctioned 40 pieces, the impact is quite large.

Hong Jiansheng and Wang Jiaqi, the famous collectors of Hong Kong, are the representatives of the Hong Kong business community who are obsessed with furniture. Ms. Wang Jiaqi, the artistic talent endowed by her ancestors (her great-grandfather Wang Zhen, a painter, calligrapher and poet who was well-respected at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China), has a unique sense of beauty and insight, so she can be eye-catching and insightful. Extraordinary good. As early as May and December of 2009, the important Chinese furniture in "Zhen Gutang" was auctioned in Hong Kong. The auctions were more than ten pieces of the peaks of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including various bed tables, chairs and cabinets, covering the lacquer. Furniture, huanghuali and rosewood. It can be seen from the above that the furniture hidden in "Zhen Gutang" is mainly concentrated in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The style is exquisite and elegant, simple and pretty, and it condenses the quiet wisdom and life of the ancients.

Talking about the feeling of getting along with antique furniture, Wang Jiaqi said: "We share the living with each collection. The children collapsed in the Ming style as a bedding, and a large Ming-style painting table is the dining table for the whole family. The stool naturally became our seat. The pilgrimage to the pilgrimage has cultivated our intimate sense of self-confidence in Ming and Qing furniture. It enjoys the life and aura of wooden furniture in use, which is a very beautiful interaction. The pursuit of environmental protection."

The mainland market has risen rapidly in ten years

In mainland China, the antique agent who started the furniture collection earlier was headed by Ma Weidu. His Guanfu Museum is the first private museum in China, and the door is the imposing rosewood furniture hall. The earliest test of Ming and Qing Ming furniture auctions was Beijing Hanhai and China Guardian.

In 1994, the prices of those auctions were not as good as today's. In 1995, China Guardian launched the "Clear Water Mountain House, Ming and Qing Furniture" special, which is also the first private collection in mainland China. In 1998, Wang Shizhen resold 79 pieces of Ming and Qing furniture purchased for decades for a nominal price of US$1 million to Mr. Zhuang Guilun, Honorary Chairman of Hong Kong Fumao Co., Ltd., provided that "these furniture cannot leave the mainland", the same year In November, Zhuang Guilun donated these pieces of furniture treasures to the Shanghai Museum for free in the name of his father Zhixi and Shu Zhigang. The exhibition hall of the exhibition was named "Zhuang Zhiyi, Zhuang Zhigang Ming and Qing Furniture Hall". This beautiful talk has profoundly affected the collection and research of furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the Mainland.

From 2002 to 2004, it was the period in which the mainland Ming and Qing furniture auction market was solid and rapidly rising. Not only did the boutiques emerge, but collectors also actively took shots. However, from the overall transaction situation, before 2002, the auction of Ming and Qing furniture was basically based on New York, and the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions were also active. Until 2006, the distribution of global buyers showed a general equilibrium situation. The interest of European and American collectors continued unabated, and the enthusiasm of mainland China soared. In 2008, it was called "Pearlwood Furniture Year" by the mainland industry. On April 11, 2008, the Qing Emperor Qianlong's royal red sandalwood carvings, the western grass, and the lotus flower, the Qingshou figure, were won by the Macau gambling king, Mr. Stanley Ho, for HK$1,376,500, and created a high price in Sotheby's in Hong Kong. Two weeks later, China Guardian launched the "Shengshi Yaji - Qing Dynasty Palace Rosewood Furniture" special shot, which was hailed as the first high-level auction of Daqing's Daqing furniture in 10 years. Thirteen pieces were successfully taken out of 12 pieces, and 4 pieces were shortlisted for the top 10 high price list of furniture. The fall of 2010 to the fall of 2011 was a period in which the Ming and Qing furniture auctions in the Mainland emerged. Such as "simple and simple - Ming style huanghuali furniture boutique" (China Guardian, autumn 2010), "Chinese classical furniture night" (Beijing Poly, spring 2011), "Yao Huang Wei Zi - Ming and Qing classical furniture" (China Guardian, Fall 2011), "Special Auction of Classical Furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" (Nanjing Zhengda, Spring 2010). In recent years, under the guidance of the auction of garde as the vane, the mainland auctions gradually formed an atmosphere for the Ming and Qing furniture auctions. In 2012, the major auction houses paid more and more attention to furniture, and classical furniture has completely got rid of the status of “miscellaneous”.

At this point, Ming and Qing furniture completed the evolution from "home" to the market, from export to domestic sales, from "miscellaneous" to "special" adjustment.