How to collect Hainan Huanghuali furniture

(1) History

Old Haihuang furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties has very few surviving pieces. Mr. Wang Shixiang, China's most authoritative researcher on Ming and Qing furniture, listed and analyzed furniture in his book "Research on Ming-style Furniture" based on Su Zuo (made in Suzhou). Indeed, although there have been schools such as Su Zuo, Jing Zuo, and Guang Zuo in history, due to the immersion and influence of Jiangnan's strong cultural heritage, Su Zuo furniture is undoubtedly the most representative and tasteful of Ming style furniture. If you still want to collect this kind of furniture now, it is like looking for a rarity. It can only be seen in the Palace Museum in Beijing or the Ming and Qing furniture exhibition halls of the Shanghai Museum.

In "131 Pieces of Huanghuali Furniture Collection in the Forbidden City" written by Rui Qian, we are still unable to determine whether all of them are made of Haihuang. We do not rule out that there are Yuehuang (Vietnamese rosewood) or even Caohuali (referring to Caohuali). Products from Myanmar, Laos and other countries). Wang Shilao sold more than 70 pieces of old Haihuang furniture to the Shanghai Museum for a symbolic US$500,000 a few years ago, which he had accumulated throughout his life. On September 21, 2006, Ms. Zeng Youhe, who lives overseas, donated 7 pieces of rosewood furniture collected by her husband (Ike, the author of the first rosewood furniture book "An Illustrated Study of Chinese Rosewood Furniture") to Prince Kung's Mansion in Beijing.

In addition, some of them went to the United States, Europe and other places before liberation. For example, there is a Nelson Museum in California, which specializes in collecting this kind of furniture. Some are collected by enthusiasts from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. For example, "The Beauty of Huanghuali Furniture" written by Taiwanese scholar Hong Guangming, the general introduced 47 pieces of furniture that were collected by private individuals (some of which have obvious traces of yellowing, such as the armchair listed on page 38). Therefore, there are only a handful of them in the country, and they are also in the hands of collectors.

How about settling for the next best thing?

There are still a certain number of widely produced Ming and Qing Haihuang old furniture, and the price/performance ratio is relatively high. Some traces can still be seen on Hainan Island (which was a region of Guangdong Province before the 1980s): some are in some commercial squares and antique cities in Haikou City, and some are still in the homes of businessmen and ordinary people in some counties and cities in Hainan. The varieties include Eight Immortals tables (including Six Immortals tables and Four Immortals tables), arm chairs, Taishi chairs, official hat chairs, boudoir chairs, desks, incense tables, desks, etc.

Here we would like to introduce two kinds of folk furniture in particular, which embody the characteristics of Hainan folk customs. They are small chests with four-year-old heads, commonly known as rice cabinets and money cabinets. According to Zhang Zhiyang, an expert on Hainan huanghuali research, it is usually a box for storing valuables at home. It is impossible to use expensive and scarce huanghuali to make such complicated and unsophisticated furniture in order to lock up hundreds of pounds of rice. . There is also a leisure recliner, which was introduced by educated youth from Guangdong, Shanghai, and Fujian during the "Cultural Revolution". Although they are not in the category of Ming-style furniture, they still have collection and use value. For example, after renovation, a rice cabinet can be turned into a bedside table, lamp stand, bonsai stand, etc. Recliners are always available and are regarded as luxury fashion items for upper-class leisure people in Beijing. Especially the ones with good quality are more valuable for collection.

The author saw a deck chair being renovated in the workshop of Feng Yuntian, a famous Haihuang maker in Haikou City, and immediately collected it. After trimming and polishing (please do not burn the wax, as once the wax is hot, the pungent smell will be greatly reduced. Unfortunately, most sea-yellow furniture on the market has been waxed in order to pursue a brighter color and more pronounced texture). The whole body is made of a single piece of purple avocado wood, with ghostly faces connected to each other, a faint purple light, and a faint fragrance floating around. As soon as you lie down on it at night, you will fall asleep peacefully in the fragrance. The production level is extremely high, with the same color and texture integrated and arranged in an orderly manner. The shape is dignified, the structure is exquisite, and the lines are smooth, revealing an extraordinary temperament. This is infinitely touching: even in the chaotic Cultural Revolution era, there were still such superb skills and idealists striving for excellence. This kind of lounge chair has a high aesthetic value, and when placed together with Ming-style furniture, its elegance is no less elegant.

The characteristics of Guangzhou furniture are that it fully demonstrates the geographical advantages of Hainan, that is, the materials are generous and the shape is slightly thicker. Of course, compared with Su Zuo, it is slightly less elegant and agile. These remaining old furniture can be roughly divided into two types. One is made by local craftsmen in Hainan and is relatively vulgar. Many of these things have been dismantled and used as raw materials. The other type is quite elegant, not inferior to mainland craftsmanship. This is because most of the people in Hainan Island originally immigrated from Fujian, and many of these people were skilled craftsmen. For example, the carvings in Qiongshan County are very fine, with obvious traces of Puxian woodworking. There are also Yacheng Prefecture (now part of Sanya City), Qiongzhou Prefecture (now part of Haikou City) and other places with prosperous culture. Many wealthy families who returned from the mainland brought craftsmen and crafts with them. The furniture they used also followed the typical Mainland Ming and Qing styles.

There are also some officials, merchants, and landlords on the island who buy Cantonese-style and Soviet-style furniture from the mainland. For example, the author has collected two Eight Immortals tables. One is a carved Dagong table dating from the mid-Qing Dynasty: 8×8cm legs and feet with carved patterns and delicate carvings (which means blooming wealth, heirlooms of poems and books, and a good harvest). , Luo Guoji raises the Yang line. The table is made entirely of a purple avocado tree. It is tall and large, showing the domineering and heavy weight of the Qing Dynasty during its prosperity. It also has the solemnity and auspiciousness of a tribute table before a god. The second is an imitation Ming-style grid table dating from the mid-Qing Dynasty: waistband, ice plate rim, bow-shaped rice bowl, and inverted horseshoes. It is also made from a whole yellow-red avocado. The workmanship is simple and reveals the scholarly atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty literati. As for the other armchair, the shape of the backrest and armrests are slightly narrow and not as stretchable as the Su Zuo. This is probably because plagiarism cannot be found anywhere.

After talking about the historical value, there are two more points that can be introduced together. First, can it be accurately dated? But is there any new work that can replace the old? Old furniture is not like calligraphy and paintings, which have dates inscribed on them, and most of them have no production time; nor is it like porcelain, which can be excavated from kiln sites, scraped off some raw materials, and analyzed using carbon dioxide (there was a foreign buyer two years ago) I bought a painting that was suspected to be by Leonardo da Vinci, and after scientific testing of its paper and paint, I analyzed a more specific age, and finally identified it as a work from Leonardo da Vinci's studio). In addition, the craftsmanship of furniture, especially the basic forms of common varieties, often lasts for hundreds of years without major changes. For example, the chairs, armchairs, and hanging lamp chairs in Ming-style furniture must have been finalized in the Song Dynasty.

It is even more uneconomical to make new works than old ones. Most cultural relics are deliberately made old to look fake. Only Haihuang old furniture, no one wants to make it old. This is because "flour is more expensive than bread." Nowadays, the old sea yellow material that can be used for furniture can easily cost thousands of yuan per catty. It would be even more uneconomical to use such expensive old materials to imitate old models and turn them into cultural relics. For example, the two Eight Immortals tables introduced above are newly made from old materials, and the price is at least double the current price. What's more, this kind of old material is very difficult to find nowadays. Even if you can find it, it will either not be sold or the price will be sky-high. Therefore, there are only new works made from old materials, that is, some old folk furniture is dismantled into materials, and there is no new work to replace the old ones to pass them off as cultural relics.

(2) Artistic value

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China has a saying about Ming-style furniture: "Its elegance has never been surpassed." This is an appropriate sentence. evaluate. This is the sustainable charm of Ming and Qing furniture. As early as the Ming Dynasty, Shen Jin said in the preface to "Changwu Zhi": "The couches have their own proportions, the utensils have their style, and their positions are determined. The most important thing is to be precise and convenient, simple and tailored, and skillful and natural." The Ming-style furniture designed and produced with the participation of literati from the Jiangnan area embodies the elegant and refined aesthetic style pursued by the literati in the Ming Dynasty. This style is: simple shape, smooth lines, scientific and rigorous, fine workmanship, diverse decorative techniques, and beautiful materials, unparalleled in the world.

The style of Ming-style sea-yellow furniture is closely related to Jingdezhen porcelain and cloisonné, chapter novels such as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West" and "Water Margin", and Tang Xianzu's "Handan Dream" and "The Peony Pavilion" The literati paintings of Wen Zhengming, Dong Qichang, Shen Zhou, etc., the calligraphy of Xu Wei and Wang Duo, and the winding and graceful garden architecture all together constitute a continuous picture of the Ming Dynasty culture, from which dialysis The lasting breath of books.

At present, the places in China that can produce imitation Ming and Qing huanghuali furniture include Haikou, Hainan, Xianyou, Fujian, Taishan, Guangdong, and Beijing. It stands to reason that what ancient people could do, modern people can do better. But why is it, as a foreigner says, "its elegance has never been surpassed by anyone so far"? The key is that today's people are impetuous, cheating, and dishonest, but ancient people were immersed in culture, with a calm mind and strict control.

Modern people’s production methods are modern, which is incomparable to the ancients. For example, computer graphics can be very accurate and can 100% replicate Ming style styles; modern planers, saws and other tools are also incomparable to the ancients. In ancient times, only herring swim bladders could be used to assist mortise and tenon reinforcement, while modern glue is advanced. In ancient times, it could only be polished with straw. No matter how much polishing was done, it could not achieve the smooth surface like glass that is produced with thousands of sandpapers in modern times... But the current manufacturers are designed and manufactured by some migrant workers with low education. As for the subject, the boss only has some research and doesn’t have much time to personally participate. The ancients strived for excellence, especially those made for the palace and designed for dignitaries, and they were even more rigorous. Nowadays, the only thing manufacturers pursue is "money". With such a world style, how can we create fine works of art that are comparable to those of the ancients?

For enthusiasts and buyers, how many experts can be found out of 10,000 people who truly understand and recognize counterfeit products? Therefore, there is a market for counterfeit products. However, the author still found some excellent production by some manufacturers. For example, in the Haikou Huanghuali Association, the first huanghuali association in China, there are several skilled craftsmen who explore and pursue the spirit of retro innovation. When the author was at the establishment site of the Haikou Huanghuali Association, I saw a pair of armchairs made of old materials with vivid textures of purple avocados. They were neither patchwork nor patchwork, and even the seat boards were single boards. They were so beautiful that they were the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. A beautiful pair of armchairs. Its shape and size are strictly based on the armchairs in the Forbidden City and Shanghai Museum, and the polishing is needless to say; and the material is also unmatched by the ancients.

According to the author's observation and analysis, most of the sea yellow used in the Ming Dynasty was collected in eastern Hainan. The material is loose and the color is basically yellow or even white. Because it is an aniseed material, the texture is generally straight and smooth, so those with boils are commonly known as "grimace" and are exclaimed as "the most lively and lovely", and are regarded as the typical characteristics of sea yellow. In fact, this is not the case. What truly embodies the beauty of sea yellow is not the pineapple in the east, but the purple, red and other avocado pears in the central and western regions.

Because avocado grows in mountainous areas that are difficult to mine, and the materials are mostly twisty and small, they were rarely used in ancient times. Therefore, it is difficult for us to see its beauty in the introduction of Haihuang ancient furniture. If there are some, they are also called various good names by the author. Such as "turbulent", "concentric circles", "unpredictable". (For example, the mirror box panel of Hong Guangming's "The Beauty of Huanghuali Furniture" on page 70, the three-screen single-board surround Arhat bed front screen on page 155 of Wang Shixiang's "Research on Ming-style Furniture", and the four panels on the cover of Rui Qian's "131 Pieces of Huanghuali Furniture Collection in the Forbidden City" The back panel of an armchair).

And these patterns can be found everywhere in western avocados, and there are many more beautiful ones! Nowadays, there is almost no supply of sheet materials, and old avocado materials from tree heads and roots are used for furniture making. But this has achieved the unparalleled beauty of Haihuang furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. A chair collected by the Shanghai Museum was photographed and used as the cover of the album. The author saw at the scene that the whole body has straight lines of pineapple, even the curved handrails, which cannot reflect the strange beauty of pineapple.

This kind of fine new work imitating the Ming Dynasty is rare in the market, and it is rare to find it. No matter how high the price is, it will still be ordered by knowledgeable people who know the news before production. If you want to own a set, it depends on chance.

(3) Appearance (Material)

The appearance of Huanghuali furniture is evaluated by material, color, patchwork, etc.

The most important thing is how much you patch up. Huanghuali (scientific name: Dalbergia Dalbergia) is also one of the "Ten Sandalwoods and Nine Empties". The older you get, the more emptiness you get. In addition, the existing materials have basically bottomed out, so it is really rare to not make up for it. "If you don't replenish it, it's not sea yellow." This is what we call it. The author collects an old Ming-style Eight Immortals before the mid-Qing Dynasty. It has three panels (the largest in the country and two panels). It is cut straight and made of one piece of wood. Although it has lasted for more than a hundred years, it is still undamaged. This kind of appearance is almost Climb to the top. Nowadays, some manufacturers in some places use at least 200 pieces of new and dry materials to stitch together a bunch of chairs. There are also many bug holes, white leather coloring, and concave spots filled with powder. No matter how low the price of this kind of "Bainiyi" is, you can't buy it. Maybe after a few years, it would fall apart and turn into a pile of scraps. A certain place in Guangdong specializes in making this kind of stuff, and a set of armchairs costs less than 100,000 yuan. I have also seen traces of it time and time again in the market and with buyers.

Material. Generally speaking, the eastern material is far inferior to the western material, the new and dry materials are far inferior to the old material, and the old material (that is, it is cut down and placed in the mountains to wait for its white skin to corrode), and the huanghuali is far inferior to the avocado.

Color. The eastern material is basically yellow. Midwest avocados are divided into several colors, such as purple, red, brown, black and mixtures of these colors. Purple is the most noble and beloved color. "Forbidden City", "Purple Air Coming from the East", "Red as Purple"!

Purity. Nowadays, it is almost difficult to have the luxury of "one piece of wood, one piece of equipment". No matter how particular we are, we always choose products from the same origin and similar colors. The purer the product, the higher the quality. For example, making a picture table entirely out of huanghuali is more valuable than using more expensive but colorful avocados.