PART V FURNITURE DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA BEFORE 1950 ( series of part 1-5 )

1. Asian countries-
Furniture

2. IMPERIALISM AND COLONISATION
1600 AD - 1960 AD

3. Colonialism:
Colonization of the world
• European expansion created a
colonial system, where
colonies were developed in the
Americas, coastal Africa, and
India.
• Spain and Portugal controlled
the Americas, and the French,
British and Dutch competed
for Africa and Asia.
• As trade ports were set up,
and Iberian-run plantations
and mines in the New World,
what historians have called the
"Columbian Exchange"
evolved.

4. Colonists in the 1700s in the United
States were concerned with comfort
and usefulness in their furniture
returning to simpler, earlier influences.
• Windsor chairs, wingback and
camelback sofas and chairs, and
simple Shaker-style furniture all were
common.
• Woods native to the Americas was
used like ash , maple , elm , black
walnut , red cedar , yellow pine and
hickory , fruitwoods such as peach,
apple and cherry .
• Chased-brass mounts were used
instead of iron and wooden knobs. S-
shaped cabriolet legs, pad, trifold or
pointed feet and claw-and-ball feet
dominated the American British
colonial furniture style. Camel back sofas and chairs
Windsor chairs
Wingback chairs

5. Colonial style furniture, INDIA
• British Colonial
Style Furniture
By the Victorian
era of the mid to
late 19th century
brought the solid
and sturdy
furniture designs
of England and
adapted them to
the tropics.
• They adapted
Asian and
African motifs
into those
traditional
designs in teak
and mahogony as
well as rattan,
leather, and
animal prints.

6. IN INDIA : The planters chair and the rocking chair . The gracious plantation
chair with its low seat, sloping back, and scrolled arms has come to symbolize the
colonial West Indies style.
SWIVEL CHAIR
And the rocker

7. British in India
developed their own
colonial furniture
style. Inlaid ivory
and gilt mirrors
adorned tables,
chests, and
dressers.
Scrolled legs
are more ornate,
reflecting the Hindu
architecture and
design found in India.
The need to be
mobile led to a
unique style of
furniture, called
"campaign", or
"camp".
Campaign items
are most generally
collapsible, with
folding or removable
legs, and often with
ingenious hidden
compartments

9. www.corbisimage.com

10. A passage to India : Club scene

12. Often furniture was carved by
native craftsmen using British
designs, and there is evidence of
frequently little flourishes of Asian,
Caribbean, or African art,
intermixed with the original
carving.
e.g. in a mahogony four-postered
bed, perhaps, a carved pineapple
at top the posts.

14. The regional styles of India
• Kerala
• GUJRAAT ,
Sankheda
• TN
,Chettinad
• Maharashtra
• Rajasthan
• Karnataka
• Bengal
• MP and CG
• Eastern
states

15. Maharashtra Wada and the boat house Kashmir
MAHARASHTRA :

17. NANA FADNAVIS WADA

21. DHEPE WADA, MULSHI

26. PUNE

27. CHETTINAD : HOUSES & FURNITURE
TAMIL NADU
The word "Chettinad" means a social caste specialising in the preparation of
food.
Chettinad is a region of the Sivaganga district of southern Tamil Nadu state,
India.
Chettinad is the home of the Nattukottai Chettiars (Nagarathar), a
prosperous banking and business community

40. Bajoth
Meenakari
Bajoth , chaurang
Indian Bajot. This
style of low table is
used in the far east
for spiritual
offerings.

41. India – regional
manifestations
UTTAR PRADESH :
• Saharanpur is well known for its
perforated lacy craft. Items are
made of Sisam, Dudhi and Sal.
The woodcarvers create magic
• The talent of wood carving is
passed from generations to
generations. Furniture is
designed in a skilled manner
having Mehrab, jali and grapevine
motifs.
• sometimes the carving is
beautified with stone inlay on
ebony wood. The colour
combinations used are attractive.
http://www.craftandartisans.com/wood-carving-of-uttar-pradesh.html

42. sankheda furniture
• Sankheda a small town located in Vadodara district gained recognition around the world due to
this art and craft.
• Sankheda is in Vadodara in Gujarat.It is well known for its lacquer works. This work is done on
country wood, which being brown gives darker shades.This town is internationally known for its
handcrafted Sankheda furniture. These are made from Teak wood.
• Traditional Sankheda furniture of Gujarat have a royal history dating back to centuries.From
centuries Sankheda furniture have been addition in glory of emperors and royal families.
Sankheda furniture is known for its captivating art and longevity without decaying. These royal
Sankeda furniture has now become accessable to general community.
• These furniture have gained popularity among many countries in the world, including United
Kingdom, United States Of America, Russia, Australia and many more.
• Sankheda furniture is considered auspicious and is used in many religious and festive occasions.
From being used as sacred pedestals for God’s idols in temples and as chairs for the bride and
groom in weddings, to cradles and walkers for infants and garden swings that give a fresh touch of
breeze in the hot and humid climate, Sankheda furniture is adopted and loved in its various
usages. Erstwhile Gujarati royalty have in the past gifted it to royalty and state-heads of other
countries.

44. The ancient people in China created
the first piece of furniture for people
to sit on: the floor mat.
CHINESE FURNITURE DEVELOPMENT

45. Chinese furniture traditionally consisted
of four distinct categories, all formed by
the mid Qing dynasty, but each with its
own unique characteristics.[8]
1.Beijing category : characterized by its
simple build, directly developed from
Ming Dynasty furnitures.
2.Guangzhou category :incorporating
western influence, formed in the 19th
century. Characterized by the
adoptation of the decrorative mounting
of marble and the shells of shellfish.
3.Shanghai category :characterized by
its decrorative sculpture and sculptured
paint.
4.Suzhou category : Opposite to the
Beijing category, characterized by its
elaborate decoration, developed from
early Qing Dynasty furnitures.

46. Cheng Hoon Teng, oldest Chinese temple
in Malaysia (1646). MALACCA
• Some classic forms of
Chinese furniture
developed as early as the
Eastern Zhou period
(770B.C. - 221B.C.). Often
referred to in the West as
"altar tables", Chinese
developed long, narrow
tables to hold musical
instruments or to display
items of wealth and beauty
such as jade, porcelain or
flower arrangements.
• Furniture now widely
regarded as Chinese in
style began appearing in
the Tang Dynasty (618-907
AD). Furniture height began
to rise along with the power
and status of Chinese elite.
(In English we speak of
being "elevated to a
position".).

47. The furniture
makers of the Tang
Dynasty began
using high round
and yoke back
chairs for the
wealthy elite.
Beautiful ceramics
and porcelains
appeared, such as
the ceramic horses
that are still
popular in
reproductions

48. The Classical style of Chinese
furniture began in the Northern and
Southern Song (960–1279) dynasty.
Mid level seating became common.
New furniture forms, such as
bookcases, cabinets, stools and
tables, were designed. New
technical developments in
woodworking began with the mid
level furniture. Newer and more
complex designs appeared, such as
rounded backs that were molded to
the body, Though, at first, only used
by official and higher class Chinese,
such furniture pieces eventually
spread to the homes of all who
could afford them

49. . Long-legged beds,
tables, towel racks,
chairs and stools
became trendy even
among the peasants.
But mat level sitting has
never been abandoned
. In China today, both
elevated living and mat
level forms are still in
use.

50. Chinese furniture began to develop
some of its distinguishing
characteristics:
•the use of meditation chairs, large
enough to sit cross legged in
•tall yoke chairs where the feet are to
rest on a bottom stretcher
•day beds
•opium beds where one can sit cross
legged and use small tables to eat
from or write on while sitting on a mat
or platform.
•use of thick lacquer finish
•exotic hardwoods
•detailed engravings and paintings for
ceremonial purposes and artistic
expression Sacred mountain images,
dragons and clouds, bird and flowers
all had specific Taoist connotations.
CHUANG , KANG OR BED

51. During the Ming (1368 to 1644)
and Qing (1644 to 1911)
Dynasties the ban on imports
was lifted, allowing for much
larger quantities and varieties of
woods to be brought in. Denser
imported woods allowed
craftsmen to execute finer work,
including more elaborate styles of
joinery. With the rapid rise of the
merchant class, imported
furniture styles of the West
increased the desire for mid level
seating. But at the same time mat
level seating signaled a return to
some more traditional designs.
Ming Dynasty furniture items are
beautifully shaped. They combine
aesthetic principles and practical
considerations into a graceful
whole.

52. Depending on its function,
an Imperial era piece of
Chinese furniture typically
belonged to one of three
different categories:
bedroom furniture, study
room (library) furniture, and
hall furniture, where a hall
itself might belong one of a
number of categories such
as a state (official
government) hall, a temple
hall, a garden hall and a
residence hall, the latter of
which was further
subdivided into a royal
residence hall and a
residence hall for a high-
ranking government official,
an artist, or a wealthy
businessman. The ancient
Chinese term for a hall,
covering all of the above
applications, was "ting".

53. Classic Chinese furniture is
typically made of a class of
hardwoods, known collectively
as "rosewood" (紅木, literally
"red wood"). These woods are
denser than water, fine grained,
and high in oils and resins.
These properties make them
dimensionally stable,
hardwearing, rot and insect
resistant, and when new, highly
fragrant. The density and
toughness of the wood also
allows furniture to be built
without the use of glue and
nail, but rather constructed
from joinery and doweling
alone. According to the
Chinese industry standards
today the woods are grouped
into eight classes.

55. Chinese
furniture
• Chinese furniture from
1700 to 20th century.
Jiangxi province,
Fujian, Shanxi,
Liaoning, Zhejiang,
Dongyang, Yunnan,
Linhai and Qing
dynasty.
YIGE CHUGUI
CHOUTI == DRAWER

57. COFFEE TABLE KAFEI
ZHOU
Construction of traditional
wooden Chinese furniture
 based primarily of solid
wood pieces connected
solely using woodworking
joints, and rarely using
glue or metallic nails.
• The reason was that
nails and glues used did
not stand up well to the
vastly fluctuating
temperatures and humid
weather conditions in
most of Central and
South-East Asia.
• Also the highly oily and
resinous woods used in
Chinese furniture do not
glue well, even when
pre-cleaned with modern
industrial solvents.

59. Pingfeng
• The elegant Chinese pingfeng
(folding screen) is an ancient
invention that is an essential
part of traditional Chinese
furniture.
•
• The earliest common use of
the pingfeng dates back to the
Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220
AD). The term pingfeng means
protection from wind, which
suggests the original purpose
of the pingfeng was to block
drafts.

61. THE HALL : LAYOUT
Generally speaking,
what one today would
call the interior design of
an Imperial era Chinese
hall followed certain
laid-down principles. In
the center stood 4 tea
tables, each with a set
of 2 chairs (8 chairs in
all), the walls, on two
sides, featured specially
carved wainscoting,
while the walls on the
other two sides were
plain, though on each
was hung a decorative
panel.
Ranged alongside the
walls in a certain specific
order were serving
tables, clothes racks,
folding screens (i.e.,
room dividers) and
traditional Chinese-style
beds, known as arhat
beds.

62. Most hall furniture of
Imperial era China was of
mahogany, Chinese pear
wood and its later
substitutes, red
sandalwood (zitan) – a
form of rosewood – and
blackwood (hongmu –
sometimes referred to as
wu mu), were used to
some extent.
Chinese red sandalwood,
initially in abundance,
eventually became a very
rare wood by the middle
of the Qing Dynasty,
therefore Ming or Qing
Dynasty furniture made of
these two wood types
fetch a very high price at
international auctions. THE YOKE BACK CHAIR

66. The Chinese Flat bed

67. TING = HALL

68. Xiǎo zhuōzi == SMALL TABLE

71. A CHINESE BED
WOSHI = BEDROOM

72. CHUFANG = KITCHEN

73. Japanese way of sitting even today
JAPAN

77. So learn to be discerning and aware designer…..
since its your designs which will impact society
and judged in the long run as history.
it’s not hard do try .