The Ming-style furniture making skills are ancient local traditional craftsmanship in Jiangsu Province and are listed as China’s national intangible cultural heritage.
Ming-style furniture refers to hardwood furniture made from imported wood such as padauk, rosewood, eucalyptus, palisander, and chicken wing wood by skillful craftsman since the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
The variety of Ming-style furniture is very rich. The main ones reserved are stools and chairs, tables, cabinets, beds, and shelves. In addition, there are folding screens, table screens, floor screens, etc. used as barriers. Its main features are the precious wood, the smooth curve, the rhythmic of surbase, and the skillful carvings.
The Ming-style furniture production process is fine and reasonable, all of which are combined with delicate and ingenious mortise and tenon joint. The large flat plate is embedded in the frame groove by the “Zanbian” method, which is firm and solid. It can adapt to the changes of hot, cold, dry and wet with strict structure, smooth lines, excellent skills and bright paint. Design is the first process of Ming-style furniture production, which is not only to design the shape, but also the structure of the furniture, the carving pattern and so on. In addition to the intermediate machining, the basic process of woodworking has four links: scribing, line trimming, assembly and polishing.
Ming-style furniture carving is a collection of Chinese sculpture art. As far as carving content is concerned, it includes landscapes and figures, birds and beasts, flowers, insects and fish, antique implements, Western patterns, festive auspiciousness, etc. which are all-encompassing and colorful.