Purchasing authentic Chinese furniture is like driving at night without your lights on—proceed with extreme caution. Rookie collectors can easily be fooled since fakes abound. Before 1980, most of the Chinese furniture available was not made to deceive. Copies and fakes were often assembled from various aprons, legs and seat rails, among other pieces. Although they may have been old, they didn’t originally belong together. Incorporating old pieces into “new” furniture gradually gave way to reproductions—fakes whose goal was to pass as the real thing. To meet the growing demand for Chinese furniture, talented fabricators have been recently turning out fakes with the form, joinery and even patina of top-quality pieces, says Chinese furniture authority Lark E. Mason Jr.

With the exception of a handful of dealers and auction houses, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) furniture, made from tropical Asian hardwoods and characterized by elegant simplicity and restraint, is quite rare. Most galleries tend to have furniture from the middle to late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Authentic pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries are often country or vernacular furniture from Chinese towns and villages. This regional furniture, as opposed to fine classical pieces, tends to be made from softer woods with freer, less controlled forms. However, prospective buyers of these later, more readily available pieces still must be skeptical. Clever fakes can be compared to a wonderful ersatz vintage watch that strikes the hour correctly, yet the minute hand is rarely accurate. Here are some general guidelines on how to select authentic Chinese furniture:

Woods

Fine or classic Chinese furniture was made principally from such dense, oily hardwoods as huanghuali and zitan, which are extremely resistant to water and insect damage. Conversely, most of the pieces available today are made from so-called softwoods. Determining wood type is complex, but you should at least check that the wood in the furniture you are considering is consistent to guard against reassembled parts, suggests Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Seattle dealer John B. Fairman notes that many of today’s fakes are made from pine, “a real junkwood,” which will leak sap when rooms are heated. He emphasizes that you should check where the wood is worn and look for places that show constant use. If a piece shows wear over its entire surface, that could be a sign that it’s new. Someone who is trying to age a piece rarely thinks of habitual use and tends to age across the whole surface. For example, Fairman has an early 20th-century bench, priced around $6,000, that is worn on the right side of the seat. “That’s a sign of habitual use,” he says.

Lacquer

“Lacquer furniture offers a wonderful opportunity for a collector,” says Mason, who notes that many authentic pieces have a thick burgundy, almost translucent lacquer finish. “Black or red opaque are the types most often faked,” he adds, cautioning collectors to watch out for a heavy layer of lacquer that may hide new construction. “Someone trying to produce a fake will typically shortcut the lacquering process,” Mason notes. “Authentic pieces have several layers, clay mixed with grasses, covered with lacquer. The imitators won’t make it as thick, particularly for vernacular pieces they don’t value as highly,” he says.

“Climate changes are pretty harsh on lacquer, so older lacquer will have more crackles,” Berliner adds. However, keep in mind that a forger may use something as simple as a hairdryer to induce crackling. A general caveat is that if you see a bright-red lacquered rectangular country table or wedding cabinet, it was probably manufactured recently in southern China.

Nancy Murphy of WaterMoon Gallery in New York City has a black-lacquer, three-shelf display case priced at about $20,000. “I saw it in pieces on the floor of a reputable dealer’s shop in Beijing,” she says, adding that she could determine its age (probably early Qing) by examining the wood and the joinery that had been exposed when the piece was taken apart. Although the item was not in perfect condition, Murphy bought the display case because it wasn’t “buffed-up” and over-restored. “It’s open, airy and has all the qualities and proportions you would normally associate with classical Chinese furniture,” she says.

Joinery

“If you see a metal nail or signs of glue, you may have a problem,” Berliner says, as even vernacular pieces are rarely glued. Chinese furniture uses a complex system of joinery where pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. “Look for tight joinery, although some joints may have loosened over the years, and someone may have slipped in a wedge to tighten the fit,” she says. Many examples of classic Chinese furniture were constructed so that they could be easily dismantled, packed up and moved. An experienced consultant might ask a dealer to take furniture apart to make sure that the joints have not been made from fresh or new wood. On older pieces, you might even see a few Chinese characters, as furniture parts were often marked for easy reassembling. “Dismantling is one way to discover if a piece is fake or reworked,” Berliner notes.

Form

Fakes are often unusual styles or shapes that have no place in the annals of Chinese furniture. Hong Kong dealer Andy Ng recalls seeing an “antique” low table that was, in fact, a “great invention”: A dealer had turned a small
luohan (bed) upside down, changed the top, joined the legs with a stretcher, added a horizontal crosspiece and sold it as a table.

To verify authenticity in classic furniture, you need a connoisseur’s eye and experience—or at least a consultant like Mason or London-based Nicholas Grindley. In his London gallery, Grindley has a pair of 17th-century horseshoe armchairs, priced at about $75,000. Only an expert such as himself could verify that the chairs exhibit all of the proper, classic forms of horseshoe-back construction—rear and front posts that pass through the seat frame to form legs, for example. So don’t be persuaded by appearances. “A great deal of furniture has been altered to suit Western taste,” he warns.

Wu Tung, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston once commissioned a Hong Kong carpenter to create a Ming chair copy so that visitors could sit in both a fake and an original. “You can often tell the difference,” he says. “The copies feel different because of the texture and surface of the wood, the proportions and form. Someone might spend large sums of money to create a fake and copy every detail, but a true connoisseur will still be able to tell the difference.”

In terms of tables, you have to be most careful about rectangular forms, which are in high demand and thus in ample supply as reproductions. Mason suggests that if you find a square table—a much less desirable form from a market standpoint—you have a better chance that it’s at least partially authentic. If the size of a table or cabinet seems just right for a modern living space, it most likely was reduced in size, according to Mason, since “long tables and tall cabinets were common in China’s lofty halls.”

Patina

“One of the great signs of fakes coming out of China is the ridiculous patination,” says Murphy, referring to highly polished new wood that has a glossy sheen but no natural luster. Depth of color makes the difference, notes New York City dealer Marcus Flacks. “When you look at an old wood like huanghuali, the surface patina is continually changing, whereas new wood, stripped and stained, is basically flat,” he says. “If the patina is too uniform, it is probably new.” To evaluate patina, look for strongly figured grain often colored by alternating streaks of light and dark. Flacks often seeks out burlwood furniture because it has an organic, undulating surface with many knots and an “unbelievable depth of color.” A 17th-century huanghuali and burlwood incense stand at his gallery is currently priced at about $75,000.

Essentials

There’s no substitute for educating your eye, which means reading about classic
as well as country Chinese furniture, visiting museum exhibitions and above all, developing a relationship with a reliable dealer or adviser. Buy the best you can afford and keep in mind that grime, wear and tear are evidence of the furniture’s valuable history. In the battle between restoration and “found” condition, most experts emphasize that signs of use trump zealous refinishing every time.

For more information
Timothy Sammons Inc. (Lark E. Mason Jr.), New York, NY (212) 288-6806.
MD Flacks Ltd., New York, NY (212) 838-4575.
Ming Furniture, New York, NY (212) 734-9524.
Honeychurch Antiques Ltd. (John Fairman), Seattle, WA (206) 622-1225. 
WaterMoon Gallery (Nancy Murphy), New York, NY (212) 925-5556.
William Lipton Ltd., New York, NY (212) 751-8131.
Nicholas Grindley, London, England 011 44 207 437 5449. 
Christopher Cooke (dealer and restorer), London, England 011 44 207 350 0504.
Art Treasures Gallery (Andy Ng), Hong Kong, China 011 852 25 430 430. E-mail: atghkg@netvigator.com