1, it is one of the keys to identify whether it is ancient furniture. According to Liang Bingnan, an expert in Foshan collection, there are naturally formed patina in places where users often contact, and the newly imitated patina is either unnatural or made in places where users don't often contact.
2. Look at the legs and feet. The legs and feet of Cantonese furniture in the late Qing Dynasty are mostly carved with waist, sheep hoof and horseshoe legs and feet. You can observe the modeling patterns of the legs and feet, whether there are traces of fading and being affected by the humid climate in the south for many years.
3. Check for signs of renovation. Fake means of ancient furniture are common in patchwork transformation, or transforming common ancient furniture into rare varieties and disassembling them into parts to increase. For example, changing the shelf bed into a arhat bed, or removing some patterns on the yang carving to deepen the age, transforming the less valuable half table, generous table and small square table into rare drawer table, long table and go table, and changing a chair into a chair are all common counterfeiting methods.
4, look at the accessories, carefully observe the accessories such as the bottom plate, drawer, and copper movable parts of ancient furniture, and also find out the clues of imitation. It is understood that the bottom plate and drawer plate of ancient furniture generally have an antique style that is not like imitation, and the tenons in the past were all square and the tenons were pointed and locked. If you see that both ends of the mortise are round, it means that it is machined and must be a new imitation. In addition, if the copper part of the old furniture is original, it will glow with light silver or a little green rust after a long time, and the surface will be as uneven as a wooden board that corrodes the marks. These are the keys to identify the authenticity of old furniture.
Dismantle a batch of 23 miscellaneous materials, of which old materials and new works are forged materials. China Ming and Qing furniture is made of extremely precious mahogany, Huang Huali, chicken wing wood, ironwood and mahogany. Although these Woods have their unique physical properties in terms of specific gravity, color and texture. They will be contrary to the standard wood samples in books because of different growing places, different growing years, the movement of wood position (such as sapwood and heartwood) and the change of sawing angle during cutting. In addition, even if the natural color is not consistent with high-grade wood, speculators will change the color of wood and pretend to be high-grade furniture.
Due to different fashions, hardwood furniture was favored by court dignitaries and literati from the mid-Qing Dynasty to the 1930s, so fake wood was mostly painted black. For example, there have been cases where Cao Huali's furniture was painted black and pretended to be red sandalwood. Fake hardwood furniture, such as imitation mahogany and rosewood. Imitation mahogany is to soak sawdust in water, boil it into a thick reddish purple, and then dip it with a brush several times. After drying, mix 5 parts of fruit juice and 1 part of big red material or gold powder evenly, dip it on the wood surface with a fine brush, and wax and polish it after drying. Imitation rosewood is coated with potassium permanganate or potassium bicarbonate solution, oxidized to brown by air, and then coated with red solution. In addition, in order to strengthen its dark brown effect, the method of replacing potassium bicarbonate and black mixed solution was adopted, and waxing and polishing were carried out after drying, so a piece of "red sandalwood furniture" with black and deep color was grandly presented.
This paper briefly introduces carving technology, polishing technology and painting technology.
1, carving is an important decorative means of furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties. When identifying the carving of imitation furniture, we should pay attention to the following points:
(1) knife alignment. The knife method of imitation furniture is dull and stiff, deliberately pursuing the shape and losing the charm, and sometimes deliberately highlighting a part for imitation, which makes the overall layout out of balance.
(2) look at the lines. Lines seem to be the simplest, but they are the most difficult to do. If you don't pay attention, you will give away the clue. When identifying, we should carefully observe whether the lines, especially the edge lines and decorative lines are firm and smooth.
(3) Review the details. The carving of furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties pays special attention to the exquisiteness of details, while imitation furniture is often difficult to achieve the exquisiteness of details because of the lack of materials.
2. In the production of Ming and Qing furniture, there is a saying that "three points of work, seven points of polishing". In the past, after the master made the furniture, the disciples had to polish it carefully, often for several years, and some rosewood furniture was even scraped out bit by bit with bamboo pieces. This kind of polishing time is profound and meticulous, leaving no gaps, especially those subtle deep recesses, which can be polished very smoothly and softly. Most of the new imitation furniture is polished mechanically, and parts of scraggy can be polished like mirrors, but in potholes, there is nothing the machinery can do, and it will definitely shed rough marks. Even if it is polished by hand, it will not be as deep as before.
3. All kinds of furniture have their own painting technology. The painting process of precious hardwood furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasties is "painting". First, the furniture is polished to reflect the natural texture of wood, and then coated with natural paint.