Chinese Furniture/Student Paper

[massdog69]

Hi everyone!

I'm a History student at Baker University in Baldwin City, KS. I'm doing a research project on three pieces of furniture that is Chinese in design. I think it is from before 1900, and it was owned by a rich family in Topeka, KS. The university bought it in 1953 after the wife passed. If anyone can help me in any way it would be greatly appreciated. You can email me directly at jaysonmassey@hotmail.com .

[ironlord1963]

Wow those are stunning massdog, can't wait to see tales drool over these, she will love see these I'm sure.  I know very little about furniture, but just had to say welcome and those are stunning.

[massdog69]

Yeah, that's why I decided to doing a paper on these pieces becaseu they are very cool!

[KC]

massdog, welcome.  They are all beautiful but the chair (last picture) is breathtaking.  Will forward to a friend.

[talesofthesevenseas]

*Wipes up puddle of drool at her feet*

Very, very beautiful. But definitely out of my league. I'm surprised to see what look to be machine made screws in the one photo. I'm wondering if that was a later repair?

I hate to keep referring people off-site, but I'm going to have to defer to John and Eugene at http://www.chineseantiquefurnitureshop.com/videos.html Drop them an email, I'm sure they can give you a much better assessment than I could, they've been very helpful to me.

[massdog69]

Well, I dropped them an email.....lets see what they say!

[fancypants]

Welcome to the forum , massdog69 .

I have an opinion , for your consideration , concerning the small dragon-motif table you posted an image of .

To me , this motif appears to be a Suijin (Japanese water-god dragon) ... the dragons on the piece appear to all be three-toed dragons .
Japanese dragons of the era of the piece of furniture , almost without exception , would have only 3 toes .

Although fairly uncommon in Chinese dragon motifs ,  3 toe dragons were used , but most commonly were 4 or even 5 toe motif .

The three-toed dragon is an indicator of the origin of this piece might just well be Japan , not China .

[massdog69]

I will do a bit of searching online for japanese furniture and see if I can find a match. Thanks for your input!

[massdog69]

Fancypants you saved my day! For some reason I didn't think the furniture would be Japanese. I didn't think that Japanese used the dragon as much as the Chinese, I also didn't think they used the square symbols on the seat bottom. I have found several different chairs on the net that look almost exactly the same. Some are even selling for $5000. Won't the school be pleased HA!

THANKS AGAIN!

[KC]

Just got a reply from my friend.....here is their response

Chinese pieces !!!
It is hard to tell because Chinese furniture has so many reproduction pieces, but if it is original, it will be after 18c...  because beforeward most of chinese furniture are simple form design...   Or it could be around chinese culture country like Mongolia... believe so.

Hard to tell without close up.  Firsts look like reprodutions. (meaning first 2)

[fancypants]

Sounds like a wrasslin' match in the makin' !

[massdog69]

From what I have found they are Japanese from the Meiji period (pre 1900). Not very many of the same on the internet however.
Thanks again for all the help everyone.