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huanghuali

Chinese huanghuali furniture: precious wood, elegant design

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BY KARLA KLEIN ALBERTSON
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This unusual Chinese huanghuali armchair with silver inlay and a canvas seat dates to the late 16th or early 17th century.
Thanks to an ingenious mechanism, the rare seating form folds up for easy transport, perfect for leisure activities or a battlefield campaign tent.
Courtesy Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

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So rare that it rivals gems and precious metals in value, huanghuali, a type of rosewood, was among the tropical hardwoods found in old-growth forests in the extreme south of the Chinese Empire.

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In the 16th and 17th centuries, toward the end of the great Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the highly desirable wood was used for elegant furniture forms – chairs, stools, tables and graceful canopy beds.

In the 21st century, genuine Ming huanghuali designs have been keenly sought after, especially by wealthy Asian collectors. Adding to the market scramble is that fact that many of the best pieces have long been ensconced in the permanent collections of major museums, East and West. As values climbed, modern reproductions of rosewood from Southeast Asia and Africa began to appear on the market. To guarantee the age of their purchases, discriminating buyers pursued pieces with long histories and impeccable provenance from established Western collections.

This 16th century huanghuali canopy bed with silk gauze is actually an intimate room setting. Within the enclosure, the occupant could entertain friends with tea or issue orders to servants before arising for the day. Courtesy Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
This 16th century huanghuali canopy bed with silk gauze is actually an intimate room setting. Within the enclosure, the occupant could entertain friends with tea or issue orders to servants before arising for the day. Courtesy Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

When well-vetted examples have appeared on the market, the prices realized have been spectacular. Early in 2015, Christie’s in New York offered the collections of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (1929-2014) in a series of sales. A New York art dealer, Hatfield had a dedicated interest in Chinese antiquities and was the author of Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties (1970). In the March 18 sale of “Masterworks” from The Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, an important set of four huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, Ming dynasty, 17th century, sold for $9,685,000, far beyond the $800,000/$1.2 million estimate.

While bidding today flows from Asia across the Pacific, 20th century Western scholars played key roles in the appreciation and preservation of huanghuali wood artifacts, eventually contributing to the popularity such furniture enjoys at present. German-American academic Gustav Ecke (1896-1971) took up a teaching post at a Chinese university in the 1920s. A growing interest in his cultural surroundings led him to work with fellow scholars to record historic architecture and classical furniture. He was especially fascinated by the clean lines of Ming-style hardwood examples, which many families were selling off during the difficult circumstances of the period. His important volume, Chinese Domestic Furniture in Photographs and Measured Drawings, is a classic reference in the field.

This important set of four huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, Ming Dynasty, 17th century, sold at Christie’s New York in March 2015 for $9,685,000. The elegant chairs were among the ‘Masterworks’ in the renowned collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, who had acquired them before 1971. Courtesy Christie’s New York
This important set of four huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, Ming Dynasty, 17th century, sold at Christie’s New York in March 2015 for $9,685,000. The elegant chairs were among the ‘Masterworks’ in the renowned collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, who had acquired them before 1971. Courtesy Christie’s New York

The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo., has one of the greatest collections of Chinese art and antiquities in the world, thanks to the efforts of its early curator and eventual director, Laurence Sickman (1907-1988). Trained at Harvard, the scholar traveled around China in the 1930s, during a time of great political unrest, buying up treasures and shipping them back to the United States. Among them were paintings purchased from the last Chinese Emperor Pu-Yi, who had taken personal possessions with him when he fled Peking (modern Beijing). The collection contains excellent examples of huanghuali furniture, including a spectacular 16th century canopy bed from which a Chinese lady once held court.

In a discussion with Style Century, Dr. Colin Mackenzie, senior curator of Chinese art at the museum, explained why huanghuali is so prized: “It’s very precious because the wood itself is wonderful. What family it belongs to botanically – there’s some debate about that. You can call it a member of the rosewood family. In 17th-century science, they did not have the botanical classifications we have now, but they knew the qualities of the honey-colored wood with a beautiful grain, not nearly as in-your-face as the rosewood used in Western furniture.”

A massive and rare huanghuali recessed-leg painting table from China’s 17th century Ming dynasty sold for $3,525,000 in 2015 as part of the Ellsworth ‘Masterworks’ sale. The form has been widely copied through the centuries, but only a period table of this excellence would merit such an exceptional price. Courtesy Christie’s New York
A massive and rare huanghuali recessed-leg painting table from China’s 17th century Ming dynasty sold for $3,525,000 in 2015 as part of the Ellsworth ‘Masterworks’ sale. The form has been widely copied through the centuries, but only a period table of this excellence would merit such an exceptional price. Courtesy Christie’s New York

“Huanghuali wood actually comes from areas right in the very far south of China, on the borders with Southeast Asia, so it’s a tropical hardwood. It’s very hard and takes this wonderful polish, so it was valued for its intrinsic qualities, the wonderful color, patina, and subtle grain – and then of course for its rarity as well. Although there are earlier references, it only becomes popular in the mid-second half of the 16th century; there’s an alliterative quote from an official who says in his youth he didn’t see much of it, but now it’s become very fashionable. Supplies ran out in the early 18th century, and you don’t really get huanghuali again until the 20th century, when new supplies were found in Southeast Asia.”

Mackenzie notes the crucial role Westerners played in popularizing huanghuali styles in the 20th century. At the beginning of that century, Chinese collecting was focused on antique black and red lacquered furniture, which had been highly prized by emperors and nobles in the early dynasties. He says, “Our fascination with huanghuali is the result of Western taste, even though the Chinese are paying astronomical prices for it. It’s the result of foreigners living in Beijing including Laurence Sickman, who appreciated huanghuali because of its Modernist feel.”

This pair of antique Chinese huanghuali stools, sold by the Neal Auction Co. for $58,000 in 2012, benefitted from an interesting back story. They once belonged to New Orleans collector Irene S. Chandler, who had purchased them from a dealer in Hong Kong during a 1953-1954 visit to Asia. Similar examples appear in publications by Ellsworth and Ecke. Courtesy Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.
This pair of antique Chinese huanghuali stools, sold by the Neal Auction Co. for $58,000 in 2012, benefitted from an interesting back story. They once belonged to New Orleans collector Irene S. Chandler, who had purchased them from a dealer in Hong Kong during a 1953-1954 visit to Asia. Similar examples appear in publications by Ellsworth and Ecke. Courtesy Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

“There was a shift in Western taste which began earlier with the Bauhaus. Western visitors, responding to that, discovered huanghuali furniture as something that was modern before Bauhaus. It was the lightness of form, the efficiency of construction which used no nails, occasionally there are wooden pins – all put together with very accurately cut joints and therefore theoretically the pieces could be dismantled for transportation. I was looking at the construction of some of our chairs. The wood is not bent – it’s just carved out of solid wood. They spared no expense in that regard. They look light, but they’re incredibly solid. These visiting western scholars and curators appreciated this furniture for the qualities we still celebrate today – the wonderful design and efficiency of construction.”

The Chinese market demand for hardwood furniture in Ming Dynasty styles has stimulated the efforts of workshops, principally in Asia, which attempt to reproduce classical forms that will pass as period examples. Sources for huanghuali and similar types of rosewood have been discovered in Southeast Asia, notably Vietnam, and Africa. Whether the removal of such wood is ethical varies from site to site. Savvy buyers have learned to distinguish the more recently cut wood from older patinas. As mentioned above, serious collectors prefer to buy from early, established collections in the West. Catalog entries frequently note when and where lots were acquired. On the other hand, some of the recent reproductions are attractive and well-made. They can bring substantial prices from buyers who want the look and the appearance of this remarkable Asian hardwood.
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MARKET DEVELOPMENTS FOR CHINESE FURNITURE

Fluctuations in the Chinese stock market and the rate of growth for their economy have auction houses guessing. Buyers have always been selective, even capricious, in their choices. Will Chinese collectors now retreat from the record prices they have set in recent years? Astonishing amounts have been paid not only for Chinese antiquities but for masterpieces of Western art. The November purchase of Modigliani’s Nu couche at Christie’s – $170,405,000, the most ever paid for an artist’s work – by the Long Museum in Shanghai would suggest that competition for the best pieces will continue.

This antique pair of Chinese carved huanghuali wood armchairs with intricately carved backsplat and curvilinear arms ending in a scrolled flourish brought $43,760 at I.M. Chait in 2013. Courtesy I.M. Chait Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, Calif.
This antique pair of Chinese carved huanghuali wood armchairs with intricately carved backsplat and curvilinear arms ending in a scrolled flourish brought $43,760 at I.M. Chait in 2013. Courtesy I.M. Chait Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Style Century talked with two West Coast auction houses that have strong sales of Chinese art, including antique and more modern huanghuali furniture. Redge Martin, CEO of Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, Calif., offered these thoughts: “The market is still stronger at the high end than it was 20 or 30 years ago. If you get in the right pieces, the Chinese are still buying, but what you’ve lost is all the speculators and middlemen buying the lesser value stuff.” He noted that a pair of huanghuali chairs had brought around $25,000 in September 2015.

He continued, “In general, what we’re seeing is that the market is wising up; it’s getting more focused. Five or six years ago, the Chinese market was red hot; it also was in a bubble. They were buying everything – everything was getting bid way up. Even things that weren’t that old – certainly not ancient – were getting high bids.” To illustrate his point, Martin referred to a large collection of modern huanghuali wood furniture in traditional Ming styles that they came from a Nevada consignment several years ago. Expectations were modest because the examples were relatively new, but cabinets with $500-$1,000 estimates brought $40,000. The furniture from the estate sold for over $3 million in the highly successful sales, in part because dealers were buying up huanghuali in the speculative mood of the times.

Although not antique, this pair of large, Chinese Ming-style huanghuali stacked wood cabinets of tall rectangular form, 94 inches high – sold for $33,500 at Chait in 2014. Courtesy I.M. Chait Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, Calif.
Although not antique, this pair of large, Chinese Ming-style huanghuali stacked wood cabinets of tall rectangular form, 94 inches high – sold for $33,500 at Chait in 2014. Courtesy I.M. Chait Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Martin concluded, “What’s happened in the last couple years is that the market has cooled down to some extent. It’s gone in two directions – for average items and reproductions, the market has fallen back to normal. For the really high end, high quality items, the market remains very hot. In China, there are a fair number of billionaires and multimillionaires that have money and want the items, but they’re more selective. When we get into the exceptional, the market is still very, very good for those pieces.”

Jake Chait spoke from I.M. Chait Gallery, Beverly Hills, Calif., a firm that has specialized in Asian art and antiques for more than 40 years: “In the market, there are constant changes. Some pieces of furniture sell high, some sell low. If you’re considering the 17th-century huanghuali chairs sold at Christie’s, yes, the top-tier stuff usually maintains its value or fluctuates slightly depending on the world economy, because there are only so many people around who can afford that kind of thing. That doesn’t apply to all furniture in general. If you take more-common Chinese furniture, made out of elmwood or something like that, that’s been steadily going down in the market for a long time.”

A modern Chinese-style table and four chairs of Vietnamese huanghuali, the humpback stretcher apron accented with ruyi head spacers, sold for a strong hammer price of $150,000 at Clars in 2014. Clars Auction Gallery, Oakland, Calif.
A modern Chinese-style table and four chairs of Vietnamese huanghuali, the humpback stretcher apron accented with ruyi head spacers, sold for a strong hammer price of $150,000 at Clars in 2014. Clars Auction Gallery, Oakland, Calif.

“What’s been happening in the Asian art world, when something sells for a lot of money – such as the Ming Dynasty huanghuali pieces – people begin to make things like it. It’s nice to have something like it, if you can’t have the actual thing. Some things are completely unobtainable because the only examples in existence are in museums or private collections that will never go up for sale. People start making things ‘in the style of’ – they’re still really nice, they’re rosewood and well-carved, but they’re just not of the period. We, of course, have buyers all over the world, but I’d say it’s predominately Asian buyers. Furniture, new or old, if it’s well-executed and a good rare wood like rosewood, will still probably sell in today’s market.”
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karlakleinalbertsonAbout Karla Klein Albertson

Karla Klein Albertson focuses on the decorative arts, from excavated antiquities to contemporary pop-culture icons. She currently writes the Ceramics Collector column and exhibition features for Auction Central News, covers shows and auctions for the Maine Antique Digest, and authors the Antiques column in The Philadelphia Inquirer. She holds a master’s degree in classical archaeology from Bryn Mawr College.
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