Qing Dynasty furniture

Author: Chen Jiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-11-01
Features: Qing Dynasty furniture is a continuation and development of Ming Dynasty furniture. The materials used in Qing Dynasty furniture still primarily consist of high-quality hardwoods such as hongmu (rosewood), zitan (purple sandalwood), hongmu (redwood), wingnut wood, tilia wood, huimu (beech wood), nannanmu (cypress wood), huamu (birch wood), yingmu (burl wood), wumu (ebony wood), youmu (clove wood), and zhongmu (cypress wood). The types of furniture also fall into several major categories, including chairs, stools, tables and desks, cabinets and frames, beds and couches, as well as boxes, screens, and small wooden crafts. The woodwork also follows a frame structure, with materials, types, and construction methods all inheriting the tradition of Ming Dynasty furniture. In the early Qing Dynasty, it largely maintained the style of Ming Dynasty furniture. Around the mid-Qing Dynasty, with economic prosperity and social development, Qing Dynasty furniture, while inheriting the styles of its predecessors, also saw innovation and gradually developed its own unique style, known as the "Qing style." The earliest development of Qing Dynasty furniture originated in Guangzhou. During the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou was a major foreign trade center in China's coastal regions. Influenced by the luxurious and elegant forms of Western furniture, the furniture made in Guangzhou shifted away from the simple and scholarly atmosphere of Ming Dynasty pieces, instead pursuing a lavish and opulent style.