An ideal commingling of exquisite and often rare materials, perfection in craftsmanship and exceptional purity of line are what place Ming design, particularly in furniture, at the zenith of Chinese art. MING FURNITURE IN THE LIGHT OF CHINESE ARCHITECTURE is the first book to show the essential kinship between Ming furniture and the buildings they were designed to be placed and used within. Sarah Handler’s special perspective sheds a luminous glow on the concepts of interior and exterior form, function, placement, and purpose and reveals the inextricably intertwined relationship of Ming furniture to Chinese architecture. Decoration, construction, and function come together into a harmonious and indivisible whole, just as the Chinese artisans envisioned. With 50 black-and-white architectural drawings and 60 full-color photos illustrating spectacular examples of Ming furniture from private and museum collections around the world. The first book to place Ming furniture design within the context of Chinese architectural intent.
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From the Publisher
* With 50 black-and-white architectural drawings and 60 full-color photos illustrating spectacular examples of Ming furniture from private and museum collections around the world.
* The first book to place Ming furniture design within the context of Chinese architectural intent.
About the Author
SARAH HANDLER has been professor of Chinese Art History at UCLA and the University of Michigan, and curator of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture. She currently resides in Oakland, California.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is an outstanding book,
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This review is from: Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture (Hardcover)
This is a beautiful & scholarly book written by an eminent art historian. The organization by furniture type (i.e. chairs, tables, beds, cabinets)makes it easy to use as a reference book. The text is beautifully written and highly informative, filled with quotations & poems about Chinese culture and history. This is not a text that focuses only on cabinet-making. It explains the relationship between Chinese architecture & furniture. The photographs are not only beautiful, they also illustrate & expand upon the text in that they include current photos of furniture as well as historical paintings & illustrations showing the context for the objects. The book has an index, bibliography, and endnotes. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Chinese art & architecture.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mortise and Tenon,
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This review is from: Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture (Hardcover)
Being a fan of Sarah Handler, its easy to feel the furniture flow through the Ming Architecture.Just having retured from China and Tibet, this book was in the back of my mind as I stood and gazed up at the columns and beams mortised and tenoned together to form the typical Chinese structural backbone. Sarah has made the connection between the structural engineering of Ming/Qing building skills and the master carpenters' use of the Lu Bang Jin manual that describes appropriate and propitious use of shapes,materials, orientation and all things lucky in architecture. Buy this book and you will be happy,have prosperity and long life! BEN
9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing analysis of furniture and architecture,
By mdr "mdr" (4points) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture (Hardcover)
chinese furniture have a strong relationship with architecture, in its proportion, construction, and relationship to the space. I was looking forward to see a more detailed analysis of such relationship but this book turned out to be a mediocre repetition of numerous chinese furniture books already in the market. Many of the pictures are from dealer's photos or Museum's existing photos. The reference paintings are primary from Chin P'ing Mei or similar paintings which have been published numerous times by other authors. The sketch or drawings are mediocre. There are no measured or proportional anaylsis of the furniture to the architecture. I have returned this book.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
To understand the commonalities between furniture and buildings, it is helpful first to examine typical structural principles of architecture. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
everted flanges, yokeback armchair, roundback chair, austere luminosity, openwork side panels, tapered cabinet, humpback stretchers, recessed waist, huanghuali wood, family reception hall, shou characters, mei cihua, lingzhi fungus, fin ping mei, openwork panels, base stretchers, kang table, hardwood examples, lattice railings, hardwood pieces, woodblock illustrations, classical furniture, cloud motifs, golden vase, crest rail Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ming Furniture Ltd, Golden Vase, The Story of the Stone, Ximen Qing, Wen Zhenheng, The Story of the Western Wing, Grandmother Jia, Student Zhang, Sixth Lady, The Classic of Lu Ban, University of California, Wang Shixiang, Kansas City, Lady Wang, Gazing Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Min Qiji, Ostasiatische Kunst, Qiu Ying, Rheinisches Bildarchiv, The East Asian Library, Fang Wentai, Forbidden City, Lois Conner, Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
To understand the commonalities between furniture and buildings, it is helpful first to examine typical structural principles of architecture. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
everted flanges, yokeback armchair, roundback chair, austere luminosity, openwork side panels, tapered cabinet, humpback stretchers, recessed waist, huanghuali wood, family reception hall, shou characters, mei cihua, lingzhi fungus, fin ping mei, openwork panels, base stretchers, kang table, hardwood examples, lattice railings, hardwood pieces, woodblock illustrations, classical furniture, cloud motifs, golden vase, crest rail Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ming Furniture Ltd, Golden Vase, The Story of the Stone, Ximen Qing, Wen Zhenheng, The Story of the Western Wing, Grandmother Jia, Student Zhang, Sixth Lady, The Classic of Lu Ban, University of California, Wang Shixiang, Kansas City, Lady Wang, Gazing Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Min Qiji, Ostasiatische Kunst, Qiu Ying, Rheinisches Bildarchiv, The East Asian Library, Fang Wentai, Forbidden City, Lois Conner, Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 44
books:
See all 44 books this book cites
1
book
cites this book:
- Chinese Furniture by Craig Clunas on 20 pages
- The Dreamer Wakes (Story of the Stone (the Dream of the Red Chamber)) by Xueqin Cao on 13 pages
- Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th by Wang Shixiang on 13 pages
- Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China by Craig Clunas on 7 pages
- Chinese Furniture (Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch'ing Dynasty) by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth on 7 pages
See all 44 books this book cites
- Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation by Ronald G. Knapp in Back Matter
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