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 Press
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| This page contains Press releases and articles about Comptoir de la Main d'Or.
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April 2004
Authentication of Chinese furniture
Chinese furniture has been a collector´s item for a good while, nothing new! Under Napoleon III the wealthy households boasted many a baroque, heavily decorated, mother of pearl and ivory inlaid, piece of furniture; then in the second quarter of the twentieth century major collections were built on Asian artefacts. Nowadays those who can afford it, seek Ming furniture. The Ming dynasty extends from the fourteenth to seventeenth century, however the Ming style furniture continued to be produced up until the nineteenth century.
Contrary to the baroque style they are not teeming with dragons and other decorative efforts but of pure linear design and are therefore easily associated with the less elaborate contemporary styles.
Still these items are hard to come by, indeed only the higher casts composed of scholars belonging to both the cultural and administrative hierarchy could own such furniture. They were produced generally in the south of China around Shanghai, Souzhou and Hangzou as these towns were culturally more refined that Beijing. So if at a decorator's or an antique dealer´s you are told the furniture is seventeenth or eighteenth century, don't take it for granted! High quality ancient Ming furniture is very rare as they were shipped out of China through Taiwan ages ago and those who weren't greatly suffered during the Cultural Revolution.
« If the "Red Guards" caught you with a scholar's cabinet in your home you were beaten; this was not allowed as it was part of Mao's four decrees banning also the cult of ancestors, reading ancient books or practicing traditional painting. In order to keep them, their owners would hide them, without upkeep they would soon look ordinary, sometimes the elegant hinges were replaced for instance. » Says Arnaud Rist, a cabinetmaker and restorer who hunts down the magnificent antique furniture on display in his shop Comptoir de la Main d’or, where you will find the best value for the money (...).
Edwige Barron - LE PARTICULIER pratique n°290 - April 2004.
Extracted from the decoration section; Meubles : la veine ethnique
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