Customer Reviews

Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th

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BEYOND THE SCREEN is an apt title; it describes this book both literally and metaphorically. Nancy Berliner and fourcontributing writers dissect both the life and furniture of sixtheen and seventeenth China in a work that combines art, craft and social history. My husband, an amateur woodworker, was fascinated with descriptions of workmanship and digrams of joinery. I preferred the sections that talked about the people -- both the craftsmen (usually anonymous) that made the furniture and the elite who commissioned it. But the focus point of the book is undoubtedly the photographs of the furniture itself -- some pieces which are classically simple, others that are intricately carved. Berliner comments at length on each piece. For collectors of antique Chinese furniture -- or reproductions -- this book is an absolute must-have. It gives the story behind the craft and makes sitting down so much more interesting!

This is an excellent book for someone new to Chinese period furniture. I am an amateur furniture maker and my focus is generally 14th to 20th Century Anglo-American, but I was introduced to Chinese furniture at a seminar and found it quite fascinating. This was one of the books the presenter recommended. It contains several separate papers that cover a range of topics starting with the cultural context, the wood selection, tools and techniques and finally a representative selection of pieces in beautiful full color. The book was well worth getting.