Ming and Qing Furniture (Part 1)

Author: Zhu Jiaqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: In the 1950s-1960s, the Palace Museum reorganized and verified the cultural relics in Beijing, classifying artifacts and calligraphy/painting works into the category of cultural relics according to new concepts. All items from the former Qing imperial collection were assigned "Gu" numbering, totaling 711,338 pieces, including over 1,200 newly discovered items from unregistered collections. As a nationallarge museum, the Palace Museum is responsible for collecting and preserving precious cultural relics scattered in society. After 1949, it enriched its collection through purchases, transfers, exchanges, and donations, assigning "Xin" numbering to newly acquired items. By the end of 1994, there were 222,920 such items. These nearly million cultural relics contain extremely rich historical materials of Chinese ethnic cultural arts. They span from the primitive society, Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, through the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Two Song periods, Yuan, Ming, to the Qing dynasty and modern times. Each dynasty has outstanding works, without interruption. The categories of cultural relics are comprehensive, including bronze, jade, ceramics, steles and sculptures, calligraphy and famous paintings, seals, lacquerware, enamel, silk textiles and embroidery, bamboo, wood, ivory, bone carvings, gold and silver utensils, literary treasures and collectibles, clocks and watches, pearls and jade jewelry, furniture, and other historical artifacts, etc.