TK Asian Antiquities
Discover the Elegance of Ancient Asian and European Worlds.
Dear old friends, new friends, and those who we hope will become friends,
TK Asian Antiquities is adding a "new" feature to its business model. For several years now, many people have gently berated us for not keeping a website that stayed current or even one that was particularly indicative of our skills and strengths. I must admit that the site did not even have a truly representative sampling of the variety of our vast inventory. However many years ago, we did publish a newsletter with some regularity. Unfortunately, as enjoyable as that was for me (and we did have excellent responses), the time and cumbersome nature of printing and mailing caused us to terminate the newsletter. Well, gentle readers, we have decided to update our website with considerably larger representations of our collections. And I have decided to make the changes in a newsletter form!
Rather than inundating everyone with thousands of pieces at one time, we are going to present smaller yet representative selections of artifacts in relatively narrow fields every few weeks. While not being accompanied by in-depth scholarship, we will try to provide enough information in the introductions and and descriptions for the reader to be conversant enough with each subject to be comfortable with decisions relative to that field. For those who wish to go deeper, we will be glad to assist in that pursuit.
For example, this first offering will focus primarily on 19th-century Japanese furniture with particular emphasis on tansu. With the artifacts being presented here, we generally will describe the uses, materials, age, and unusual or rare features. However, we will generally not get involved in providing the Japanese name of each furniture piece. At this stage, we consider it somewhat irrelevant for the reader to attempt to acquire detailed knowledge.
Our offerings today consist mostly of a varied selection of both classic and unusual Japanese furniture from the 19th century; the tansu form will represent the majority of the offerings. However, we have also included a few classic Korean chests, as they were the primary inspiration for the Japanese furniture referred to as tansu. The word tansu generally refers to mobile furniture, although it literally means “storage container” and is seldom used when speaking of furniture with legs. It has been documented that, for over a millennium, the Japanese have had an assortment of built-in furniture as well as decorative and functional boxes, barrels, and bags. But, tansu in the form that the world is most familiar with wasn’t recorded until the early 17th century in the Edo period. Gentle reader, you may occasionally come across the word tansu when talking about Japanese furniture. To avoid any confusion in the future, tansu is simply another form of the word tansu. It is used almost exclusively when it is part of a hyphenated form with another word.
Most tansu have clean, simple lines, and their primary decorations are assorted lacquers combined with multimetal hardware, primarily iron or copper. Most tansu would have been used to house clothing and other personal adornments, although there are certainly cabinets and chests made specifically for scholars, samurai, and various decorative purposes. The majority were constructed of a variety of domestic woods, primarily varieties of Pine, Cedar, and elm. Most Westerners think of classic Asian furniture as being made from a variety of Rosewoods, Blackwoods, and mahogany. However, these were generally not available in large pieces in Japan until near the start of the Meiji period(1868). Most people think of Rosewood, which is used in Chinese furniture, as having come primarily from China because historically, the Chinese have been fascinated with these hardwoods. However, the famous varieties of Rosewood so coveted by the Chinese have historically not been found on China’s mainland!
I wrote earlier of tansu's simple, clean lines. However, within those lines, some of the most detailed, delicate, bold, and varied techniques and materials have been used. For example, just as in other countries, the Japanese constructed fascinating pieces using marquetry and parquetry. However, it should be noted that, in general, these techniques were used almost exclusively on smaller tables, cabinets, and boxes. Additionally, for centuries, the Japanese have been masters of a multitude of creative uses of lacquer. Lacquer finishes varied from finely finished monotones to the most extraordinary lacquer work known globally in the contemporaneous periods. And often found in combination with the finely finished lacquer were a variety of inlaid media. Notable examples of this technique can be found in the extraordinary creations of the Shibayama school. Bone, ivory, and mother of pearl were their primary inlays, but they were not limited exclusively to those media. Another classic example of inlay techniques are found in the creations from The Japanese Ryukyu archipelago. They were particularly famous for their inlaid mother-of-pearl designs. Although occasionally, it is hard to distinguish their work from some examples of classic Chinese mother-of-pearl inlay.
The Japanese were also not to be outdone in opulence and richness, when they so desired by the rest of the world, as can be seen in many of the creations for the scholar and aristocratic classes. The Japanese used a huge, almost unknown, variety of gold dusting techniques, as well as inlaid cut gold, sheet gold, and different types of gold lacquer mixes. Which, in some cases, had as many as 100 layers of individually dried and polished lacquer that was only a millimeter in depth! The resulting effects are often nothing short of extraordinary! Historically, the majority of these exceptional pieces were made for temples and the more well-to-do samurai. A major number of these “gilded” pieces have individual samurai family crests as part of or as the entirety of the design on these various pieces.
Well, with the above(lol) knowledge, it is definitely time to view these historical, artistic, and functional creations!!
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