Oriental Arts - Chinese Sideboard

The Chinese antique furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties is of exquisite design, unique workmanship and careful carving. It has been the rare treasure and one of the most splendid parts of oriental culture.

Unseparated from the culture and history, classical art gives us endless reverie, Chinese classical furniture, with the mark of the traditional Eastern civilization, conveys the information of our splendid history and the oriental concept of steadiness, solemness and glory.

The Ming and Qing dynasties styles of Chinese antique furniture are particularly unique for their elegance and delicacy. The Ming style antique Chinese furniture has been considered as the model of Chinese furniture, with its craftsmanship exquisite, its looks elegantly simple, the lines simplified and smooth, the mortise and tenon firm and the construction reasonable, Craftsmen of the Qing dynasty inherited the charm of the Ming style, added a lot into it and created a new style. Modern society witnesses the growing temptation of truth and nature.

Classical Chinese furniture developed from ancient times. Fine lacquered wooden furniture had already appeared as early as the Han Dynasty. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Chinese began to change the habit of kneeling or sitting cross-legged on a platform to sitting with legs pendant on a stool. This gave rise to furniture of level height. The technically structured and multi-decorated Song furniture laid the foundation for the further development and perfection of Ming and Qing furniture. Classical furniture reached its zenith in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Each age was marked by its own distinctive artistic style.

Ming furniture is characterised by a simple and elegant structure with fluent lines and appealing proportions. Qing furniture in contrast is larger and more imposing with elaborate carving and inlaid decoration. These two types of furniture differed greatly in style but each reached a high level of artistic success and can claim a place in the history of world furniture.