| By Wendy Moonan
Review of “Classical Chinese Furniture: A Very Personal Point of View” by Marcus Flacks (Sylph Editions, 2011, Limited Edition of 300, $250.00
Ever since I took a freshman course on Chinese civilization at Wellesley College, Chinese art and antiques have enchanted me. (The college is markedly Sinocentric, probably due to May-ling Soong of Shanghai, who graduated from Wellesley in 1915 and later became Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Thanks largely to her generosity, Chinese studies there are excellent.)
It was only in 1996 however that I was able to examine a group of rare, first-rate Chinese antiques in person, after California’s Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture decided to de-accession its collection at Christie's. For me, it was love at first sight. The elegance! Patina! Restraint!
I'd grown up with good European antiques — my father was English — but I'd never seen such spare, simple, sculptural and modern-looking antique chairs, tables and cabinets, or such richly grained, exotic timbers. The furniture was from the 16th, 17th- and early 18th century (the Ming and early Qing dynasties), and made of the precious hardwoods prized by the nobility and scholars of the time: richly grained imported huanghuali and zitan.
Unknown to me, by 1996 the London dealer Marcus Flacks was already specializing in the finest Ming and Qing furniture. BUT I soon found OUT ABOUT HIM AND FOUND MY WAY TO HIS TK LOCATION GALLERY. He was incredibly generous with his time, sharing his knowledge with collectors and aficionados like me.
Now he has produced a ravishingly beautiful, limited-edition book, Classical Chinese Furniture: A Very Personal Point of ViewITALS (London: Sylph Editions). Illustrated with detailed black-ink drawings by the Chinese painter Liu Dan and large-scale color photos, the book gives a clear, non-academic overview of the 2,000-year-old origins of Chinese seating furniture (from India and Western China's nomadic tribes), its unique (nail-free) joinery, its regional styles, exotic and local materials, sublime design — and the nonITALS-importance of paired pieces of furniture, which collectors tend to want because they see them in ancient Chinese paintings. (“As a rule, I have always felt that a rare or great example was always a far more alluring option than a standard pair,” Flacks writes.)
He describes changes in the fast-evolving collecting field. (Chinese antique furniture of tippy-top quality is increasingly rare on the market, as it is now aggressively collected by Mainland Chinese and is much more expensive.)
The core of the book is an extensive, personal account of the best pieces Flacks has handled over the past 20 years, illustrated and described, one by one, to elucidate the unique qualities of each. “I have tried, as much as possible, to include pieces that have that extra something and push the barriers of design, material and craftsmanship,” he writes.
He has also tried to showcase never-before-published works. But to me the principal value of the book is the author's passion for his subject, which I find irresistible, and his refreshing unpredictability. After telling us that huanghuali and zitan were the nobles’ favorites in the 1600s, he explains why he appreciates the "lesser" burr wood. "I have always greatly admired the use of huamu (burr wood), as I find the vigor of the grain and the contrast in textures often brings greater movement and life to the design,” Flacks writes.
After reporting that other dealers tend to over-clean antique pieces of huanghuali furniture in order to showcase its striking grain patterns and rich golden color (which he greatly appreciates), he writes that he refused to take that route. “From the very beginning, I aligned myself to a very small, but growing group of dealers and collectors for whom necessary and sympathetic restoration and the retention of surface patina were paramount,” he writes. “It is my very strong belief that the well-patinated, original surfaces on a piece of classical Chinese furniture offer a wonderfully rich tapestry of color and texture that often documents the history of a piece and are, moreover, of intrinsic importance to the value of the piece.”
Not surprisingly, one of Flacks’s favorites is really a sculpture: a low back, totally uncomfortable huanghuali rose chair with S-shaped spindles that are said to evoke running water or ripples in a pond. It is “one of the most exciting pieces that I have ever handled,” he writes. “The extraordinary sense of movement created by the beautifully-shaped spindles seems amplified by its juxtaposition with the rigid linear frame.”
And you know what? He is right.
The book is a gem. END
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