Identification of Woods for Classical Furniture Classical furniture

Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty were the golden age of Chinese classical furniture. Its technique and skill had reached such a high level that had nevergained before. The adoption of the woods was one of important reasons, for those precious woods had hard and tight texture, beautiful and elegant color and nice lines.

Ming Dynasty's furniture is usually called Ming style furniture. Ming style furniture was mainly made of hard woods from India, Burma and southeast Asia, such as red sandalwood, yellow rose wood, Tieli wood and red wood etc.. These woods' colors are so elegant and their lines so beautiful, and their texture so hard and fine.

The style of formative arts of Qing style furniture is completely different from the Ming style. And the material used for the furniture also have a little bit difference, and the red sandalwood and red wood were the main materials for the Qing style furniture.

The identification of woods for classical furniture as follows:

1, Red sandalwood

The texture of red sandalwood is best among all those hard woods, and it is also the heaviest, the lines are not so clear. Putting the shavings of red sandalwood into wine, they will immediately turn pink and form sticky jelly, pouring the jelly down, it can become a long line. This is an effective way of identify red sandalwood. Red sandalwood grows mainly in India and also in Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi of our country.

Red sandalwood is one leguminous genus with about 15 sorts growing mainly in the tropical zone. Among those sorts there are two of them growing in our country: one is called pterocarpous, commonly known as small leaf sandalwood; another is rose wood, commonly known as big leaf sandalwood. The small leaf sandalwood has few big trees, their diameters mainy within 20cm. The small sandalwood's lines are not so clear and colors dark black. Generally speaking, the red sandalwood imported from India to China is big leaf sandalwood. Lines of big leaf sandalwood are rougher and colors lighter. Clear lines appear after polished.

Our country takes red sandalwood as a precious wood ever since ancient times. For it's too precious and expensive, its products are fewer than those of yellow rose wood. If it is used on the large furniture, it would be considered as curiosa for the material is really hard to be found. Although the red sandalwood is not so bright and beautiful as yellow rose wood, but not any other wood can match its quietness and elegance.

2, Yellow rose wood(Ormosia Henryi)

The yellow rose wood was the first choice for the materials used in Ming and Qing furniture. The color of this material is not quiet and not noisy, but just pleasant, comfortable and suitable with the lines changing vividly and loved by so many furniture fans.

The colors of yellow rose wood range from light yellow to dark red. Its texture is had and its beautiful lines are arranged in the shape of inverted "V". When sawn, it gives out fragrance. The yellow rose wood growing in Hainan, China is the best. Its famous feature is those lines, which appear as ghost faces, and the wood is believed to be the best, and that with rough lines and light colors is not so nice. Another feature is the big difference between its core and sapwood, the colors of the core are red and brown to dark red and brown, and the lines of the core change irregularly between black and brown. Its sapwood's colors are grey, yellow and brown or yellowish brown.

In ancient times there was not a name of yellow rose wood, just rose wood, and later people added "yellow" to it and called it "yellow rose wood". It was mainly for the reason of making a difference from the material so called "new rose wood" which is still largely used for the furniture. Because the rose wood from Hainan was used up in the late Ming dynasty, the materials used now are mostly those rose wood imported from Burma and some southeast Asian countries. As there are so many kinds of rose wood, their qualities are very different.

3, Chicken wing wood(Ornisia Hosiei)

There are 40 to 60 kinds of chicken wing wood, and about 26 kinds in our country, mainly growing in Fujian province. For its lines are very similar to the wing of chicken, it is named as chicken wing wood. The carpenters in Beijing think, there should be new and old chicken wing woods. The new one's texture is rough with purple and black blurred lines in between and the images being inert and having no changes. And the shavings are easily and stubbly broken. The old chicken wing wood's texture is fine and tight with purple and brown colors in between. There were few old chicken wing wood used for the furniture after the middle of Qing dynasty. And the new one has been being used till today. So the chicken wing wood in the market nowadays are mostly the new one.

4, Tieli wood(Mesua Ferrea)

Tieli wood is the tallest tree among the hard woods used for classical furniture, and its price is quite low. For the Tieli wood is tall and big, many pieces of large furniture use it, and sometimes use it for the back of the furniture and inner parts of drawer. Sometimes Tieli wood has figures like chicken wings, but rougher than that of real chicken wing wood, and so some business people of classical furniture sold them as chicken wing wood in the past.

Tieli wood is a tall arbor tree with the main trunk reaching more than 30 meters and its diameter more than 3 meters. This tree originally grows in India. Now it is also growing in Guangdong and Guangxi of China. Its texture is hard and endurable, its core is dark red. And its lines and colors are very much similar to the chicken wing wood, but much rougher than that of chicken wing wood. In the tropical zone it is used to build houses and in Guangdong it is used for furniture. It really wears well.

5, Red wood

Red wood is one kind of quality hard wood used mostly just after yellow rose wood and red sandalwood. It has so many kinds and names, for examples: Suanzhi, red wood, old red wood, new red wood, fragrant red wood, red bean wood, rose wood, new rose wood and old rose wood, etc.. In recent years there are still Brazil-wood, Thai red wood, Burmese red wood, Lao's red wood and Vietnamese red wood, etc..

In the making of classical furniture, people mainly use old red wood, Suanzhi and yellow rose wood, etc.. The old red wood is similar to the red sandalwood, but its color is a little bit too light and the texture not so tight. It has fragrance. But the modern furniture production is quite different from the old days, people seldom use Suanzhi and yellow rose wood but mainly adopt those so called "Burmese red wood", "Lao's red wood" and "Brazil-wood", even use new Tieli wood for the red wood furniture. Many woods do not have red color and red texture, but after polished, color stained and painted, people can hardly make difference from each other. If you really want to make sure what woods they are using, then you have to go to the workshop, this is the only way to see the real material used for the furniture before being stained.

6, Beech(Zelkova)

Beech belongs to one kind of elm, growing in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, also named as beech elm or big leaf elm. The texture of beech is hard and color beautiful. beech is widely used and it is quite precious. The color of old beech is red, and so called "blood beech" and also called "red beech". Although beech is harder than other common woods, it can not be counted as hard wood.

The texture of beech is hard with good colors and large lines arranged as peaks rise one above another. So Suzhou carpenters call them "pagoda motif".

7, Ying wood

Ying wood is not a name of the tree. While growing, the trunk produces knots, These knots are called "ying" in Chinese with the meaning of tumuor, and so the tree is called Ying wood. The carpenters in Beijing call them " Yingzi". Generally speaking, any kind of wood can grow knots, but the phoebe grows most. And the so called "grape face" is to describe the beautiful lines of phoebe's knots by strings of grapes.

8, Elm

The elm is also called "Baiyu", growing widely, mainly in the plain region of our country. The elm's lines are straight and large. The texture is a little bit rough and soft, and so it belongs to bavin wood or soft wood. It is easy to process and carve. The elm growing in Zhangjiakou and Shandong provinces is the best. The native folk furniture in Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin are mainly made of this kind of wood.

9, China fir

The color of China fir is white or yellowish, with straight lines and fine and endurable structure. It is easy to process. It grows in the south such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and so Jiangsu style furniture of soft wood mainly use this kind of wood.

10, Qiu wood(Catalpa bungei)

Qiu wood grows widely in our country, mainly in the flatlands of the north. Its lines are plain and straight and the gaps between the lines are quite small. The structure is fine and the texture is light and soft. It is easy to process. The elasticity of this wood is small and not easy to shrink, so it is nice for making furniture. (CFhot)