March 22, 2021
Elizabeth's Lesson on Antique Furniture
Do you own a piece of furniture that you love?
Owning a good, functional piece of furniture of any kind can give you lifelong pleasure. Whether it is a chair, a table or a cabinet it can be functional as well as beautiful — or it can remind you of family history and have sentimental value.
Antique furniture is frequently disdained as “brown” furniture. This is a term of disdain implying something dowdy, old-fashioned and unattractive. But look again. “Out of fashion” also means it is available at reasonable prices through dealers, auction houses or house sales.
Brown just means wood. Beautiful and functional pieces can be had at low prices these days. If you buy something you love, and it is the highest quality you can afford you cannot make a mistake. (This principle applies to more than furniture.)
At Asiatica we have dealt in both Chinese and Japanese furniture over the past years.
Antique Japanese furniture mainly includes cabinets with drawers. These are essentially solid wooden boxes with iron hardware. Sizes range from small boxes to large cabinets (tansu). Our current stock includes 2 rare chests on wheels and two 2-part long kitchen cabinets.
Tansu
Tansu chests range widely in size, quality and type and therefore price. The most expensive, rare and sought-after are made of fine elm, have great original patina, exceptional ironwork, and are in good condition with interesting drawer formations. (photos). Prices for most except the rarest examples are as low today as they have been in the last 25 years.
Chinese Furniture
Chinese furniture offers a greater variety. Chairs, tables, cabinets, stools and small objects. The best original and rare pieces in the finest rosewood (huang hua li) have grown exponentially in value and price. (We wish we still had some of the pieces which we sold years ago.) Chinese furniture has traditionally been made of harder, rarer tropical hardwoods while Japanese furniture uses much softer woods which were locally accessible in their climate. At the moment we have several Chinese cabinets — two in red-lacquered wood and one large one in elmwood.
If you are looking for either Chinese or Japanese pieces, let us know and we will give you our best advice.