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Subject:longyan mu furniture
Posted By: gert schroeder Fri, Apr 17, 2015 IP: 188.194.157.165

Refering to the longyan mu cabinet (Febr.2014) in this forum
and my following researches at international auction houses,I had to my surprise to learn,that there astonishing few antique longyan furniture to be found in the past of this wood.
Astonishing,because it is so different compared to the two ,,leading" hard woods zitan and huanghuali,obviously much rarer and additionally and unique as well,with that surface of a very special and additional attractive haptic attraction.In most,nearly all, monographies about classical chinese furniture, tigerskin wood pieces are even not mentioned!
I would like very much to get from some experts in this forum
to learn the background of this mystery (to me) .
Thank you very much in advance!

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: peter Sun, Apr 26, 2015

Longyan is a tree grown for its fruit, not for its wood, this alone makes it unlikely to be cut down for its wood.
Longyan wood is extremely heavy and dense, making it difficult to work. I have seen it used mostly as thick boards for benches only. It could be that the wood is less suitable for thin boards.

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: kirk Wed, Apr 29, 2015

Valid point. Yes, not very much is known about Longyanmu. A client asked me the other day which species is Longyanmu? & albeit I can usually reel off any number of botanic classifications for the tropical hardwoods, I had to confess I didn't have a clue. None of the typically referenced works on classic period furniture even mention it, including Ecke; Ellsworth; Shixiang; Sickmann; etc, but have seen it used in some extremely early works. We had a 16thC cabinet made of it once, & I know of a pair of, also 16thC, book cabinets that have been BADA vetted & are without doubt very VERY old. (they're with Lennox Cato BTW) I think it is Juglandaceae family, the same family as Walnut & Nanmu, but further than that I just couldn't tell you.

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: Gert Schroeder Thu, May 28, 2015

Sorry for the late response and thanks for your comment.
Do you have any photos of the mentioned furnitures?
That would be great!

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: Peter olumbaum Sun, Jun 21, 2015

See October 2004 issue of Arts of Asia (Volume 34 Number 5) page 64. Most imformative article I could find on longyanmu.

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: Gert Schroeder Wed, Jun 24, 2015

Thank you Peter,great hint!I

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: Damien Boyle Fri, Feb 05, 2016

Wd belatedly recommend "Classical and vernacular Chinese furniture in the living environment" (1998 Yungmintang) on the Kai-Yin Lo Collection, which includes 2 longan pieces. Explains the background and narrow timeframe of longan furniture in terms of Fujian's economic history.
Regards
Damien

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: gert schroeder Sun, Feb 07, 2016

dear damien,
thank you very much for your hint.i ordered this book immediately from a dutch book seller and i am looking forward
to get it in a few days!
kind regards
gert

Subject:Re: longyan mu furniture
Posted By: Susan Thu, Oct 27, 2016

Hi,
I was recently told that a table that I own and love may be made from longyan mu. I too have been researching it and thank everyone for the information they have provided. I would like to start a conversation under the heading of longan mu furniture and have anyone with information and photos of furniture made from this wood post them and make it available for others to see and envy. My hope is to widen the knowledge of this wood, where it comes from and the type and age of furnishings only. The reason I would like to restrict the new thread to furnishings only is because there are few old pieces due to the difficulty of working with this very hard wood. I think the grain and feel of this wood to be superior to any of the other woods. So please go to the new thread and post what you have with good photos of the objects and also good closeups of the unusual characteristics.
Thanks,
Susan


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