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Hello everyone,

Here I have this interesting Cabinet that was given to me in a hessian bag by a Chinese man that told me it was given to him by his Grandfather. He did not no what it actually was as it was in eighty odd separate pieces and obviously nor did I. He thought I may be able to do something with it as I am a furniture restorer. So there it sat in my shop for some eighteen to twenty years before I finally got round to studying it properly. Wow what puzzle! it really made me test my self. The cabinetry is all hand cut, all Stroke marked for assembly, but only for the artisans notes. After all was clear with assembly I started the cleaning process, I soon noticed I was dealing with two different types of rosewood. After some research I found that the two woods are Zitan and Hongmu, the Zitan is all of the front frame railings, all the shelves, and all the carvings. The Hongmu being the side railings and back railings. The Zitan has been put to the test , firstly the water sink test and yes it sunk immediately! Then the alcohol test and yes the red soy colour appeared ! Then the unmistakable hog hair grain and smell. the Zitan had black soot residue which was quite difficult to remove, I used 0000 wool with gum turpentine, then simply rosewood soft wax and great results, the Hongmu was a little more time intensive' the pieces were finely sanded then lightly stained with three coats of shellac to match the Zitan ,as it had darkened over the years. Then the slow pain staking assembly, but it was worth it ! Now ready for my rosewood Ming and Qing small box collection display.

So why I have explained the ins and outs of my Cabinet' I was hoping some of the experts might be able to put an approximate age on it. I do know it's more than 100 years.
Thank you for any help your can offer , kind regards Mark...

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Hi Mark,
Nice thing, good find!
Pierced floral gallery & bat motif usually associated with late Qing (19thC) but not unanimously. Desirable item though either way.
Zitan? Not totally impossible. You should know however that both hongmu & zitan have SG range above 0:00, so the sink test is not as reliable as you may think in deciding whether something's zitan, or not zitan. Huanghuali has the same characteristics, it also sinks; as does huali; laohuali; wumu; teilimu; certain varieties of huamu; and of course the prized semi fossilised pith wood of nanmu (ddly however the balance of the nanmu tree does not react in the same way) So I wouldn't jump the gun there if I were you.
I'm not sure what you're talking about, re: 'unmistakable hog hair grain & smell'. if it had a pleasent smell, similar to incense, chances are significantly high it's the so called 'Dalbergia odorifera', or huali wood, which would be great for you if it was. Certainly better than if it's hongmu, which has a pungent smell.
Less great though, admittedly, as if it is in fact zitan. (there is at any rate no way of telling if it is by looking at these shots, so the verdict's still out in my book)
Something else you should know before coming to any conclusion on whether a wood is zitan or not (apart from a vast array of botanic & other acadmic literature on the topic) is, for your benefit, and possibly the benefit of other students and enthusiasts of the Chinese hardwoods who read these posts, a short check list of characteristics & further considerations:

"A Mirky Subject" (ref: L Sickman) de-fogging mind app.

Zitan is a well documented Chinese medicinal plant, that we find first reference to in Chi Bao's 3rd century 'Gu jiu Zhu'. It is thus one species only, botanic name Pterocarpus santalinus, which only grows on substrates of 20% shale and 80% quartzite in pockets that form an an alluvial fan along the Himmalayan foothills. The proto South China Sea bed (the triassic tethys in other words) and nowhere else. Few other trees thrive on these shale substrates, and consequently where sanders is found it dominates and is only found in forests. When the root encounters shale, a survival mechanism causes side shoots to grow from the trunk, which produces it's distinctive chatoyancy. All zitan displays at least 20% chatoyancy, and most components display significantly more. The species (sp) further, has a tendancy to rot from the inside, and large beetle caverns are often found on the secondary components of pieces of furniture made of this sp. Accordingly, individual components are very rarely, very wide.

It's important to remember that 34 hardwood sp were identified in a study @ Beijing agricultural circa 2002, as having been used in Chinese furniture during the Ming & Qing dynasties. It's also important to remember this study may not be complete, and does not take extinct sp into account. We are aware for example that Yunnan Zitan was over exploited during Qianlong's reign, and that there are other Ming & Qing texts, relating to sp extinction.
A range of Dalbergia; Pterocarpus; Ormoisa; Cassia; Dyospyros & other genera sp were used in Chinese furniture (but as an example there are over 200 Dalbergia genera sp worldwide) so the Chinese system of nomenclature as related to the hardwoods is not exactly what contemporaneously would be considered scientific, but there certainly are important distinctions you should familiarise yourself with if you have an interest in the Chinese hardwoods.

Wang Shixiang published some valuable notes on the topic but there is a growing view that these findings represent only a miniscule proportion of light through the murkiness, and are less conclusive than we had at first hoped.

Here's what we know for sure:
• All the species can be referred to as Hongmu, including Huali and Zitan.
• They are all very similar and difficult to tell apart, even with the benefit of an electron microscope.
• If you're not sure about the timber it's best to use the term hongmu.
• Jichimu; Teilimu; Nanmu; Rosewood; and Boxwood all have lower SG than 0:00, and will float in water.
• These are not called hongmu.
• The rest are very high density and will sink, including Wumu, (ebony) that was also used but is very rare.
• Some rare ebony sp, such as coromandel, were also used but are rare in the extreme.
• A few are called Laohuali; and a few are called Xinhuali.
• Only a very small number of the sp should be referred to as Huali wood, but certainly a fair range of species and sub species that are true palisanders, and were used and referred to as Huali wood by the Ming and Qing timbermerchants of Guangzhou, should be, and are called, huali.
• Huang is used as a prefix for well patinated Huali wood, and huanghuali is thus not, a wood species as such. (Shixiang's references are another matter, and will be left in the murkiness for the time being)
• Only one of the sp should be referred to as Zitan; being Pterocarpus santalinus (but this we already know; as does every Chinese traditional doctor; and did Su Gong; and all 22 scholars including Su Jing and Li Ji, when he published 'Tang Benecao' - a 53 volume illustrated pharmacopia - in 659AD.

It would serve you well to bear in mind these are connoisseurs terms that relate largely to grain & patina, and that there are not enough Chinese variations in the nomenclature to fill the diversity in range of species. If however these species were not used in China during the Ming & Qing dynasties, care should be taken never to use the Chinese hardwood terms in identification.

I hope this helps.
I do think it has potential and you should get someone who knows what they're looking at to view it - I would be happy to do so, but am based in London, and don't know where you're based.

Thank you Kirk! Much appreciative for your comments and information regarding my cabinet, you have gone to some efforts there. The photos I posted were not the greatest in depicting the patina of the piece, the wood is very smooth were as the photos look course I the grain. Also you questioned me on the smell! I have the piece on display in my office and when up close you can smell this unusual but quite pleasant medical scent? Hard to explain. I am located in Sydney Australia so unfortunately difficult for me to meet you! I collect Chinese rosewood Antiquities and there are other items I will post and hope if you some day find time you may check them out. Anyway thank you again kind regards Mark....

You did not provide dimensions. Could you?

Zitan? I don't think so.

My lesser argument against it being zitan has to do with the carving...looks a bit too 2 dimensional. Examples of zitan are generally finely & extensively carved, or uncarved to exhibit the quality of the wood. After all, zitan is extremely precious.

Second, the porosity of the grain seems a bit too straight. Zitan is fiberous and these fibers twist distinctively, so planks often exhibit a meandering pitted grain. Not always true, but I would figure at least one photo of one area would show this.....I don't see it thus far.

Finally, in the absence of measurements, I'm assuming the shelf planks are around 12" wide. By the late 19th c., most zitan furniture was constructed by salvaged wood or very small pieces. I don't think you would find such large, new pieces of zitan at the time your piece was made.

The grain also seems to suggest the planks were cut from a much larger tree, which seems highly unlikely given how small zitan trees were....12" might be larger the entire width of most zitan trees at this time.

It is a nice piece of furniture, but not zitzn in my opinion.

Hi Tim, thank you there for your opinions! Early April I had a Chinese antique furniture expert view the cabinet and he spent approximately 4 to 5 minutes looking with his small brass magnifying scope and confirmed the wood is indeed Zitan and the other wood I thought to be Hongmu is Hauli . We moved the cabinet into the Outside Sun and he showed me something in which I had never noticed about the cabinet . He said look down very closely at the grain and what do you see? I said do you mean the wavy grain! He said no if you look carefully you will see a gold fleck throughout the grain. Only him pointing this out to me they stood out like stars all over but only if you are looking for them, it's like they are hiding! amazing. This older Gentleman was " impressive " and I have been working with furniture for over 35 years. He believes the cabinet to be from Southern China and made approximately around 1880,s .
Also he gave me an estimate on value and I was gob smacked !! Sorry disclosed.. Tim you asked about dimensions the the shelves are 8 inch wide and the two top shelves have joins were the Zitan just simply buts together. The overall stand is
790 wide 1290 high 270 depth . Thank you for your interest regards Mark..

Correction on measurement in reference for Tim
Shelf size is 9" width not 8" ! Overall sizes correct.

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