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For those who missed the chance to have a close look at the handicraft exhibited at the First International Cultural Fair Shenzhen, a visit to another art show in Sungang could make up for it.

On the third floor of the Chaofan Furniture Plaza in Sungang, Luohu District, the art show, Masterpieces of Chinese Western Artists, is an extension of the cultural fair, aiming to provide a trading place for artists who displayed their workmanship at the main venue. The show will last until Nov. 28.

Paintings, calligraphy, wood carvings, cloth ware and collections of rare natural stones pack the exhibition area.

Zhu Lixin, chairman of the Liuzhou City Collectors' Association and founder of a rare stone Web site, mobilized many rare stone collectors to display their rich collections at the show.

Visitors can enjoy a feast of natural stones resembling features, animals, clouds, trees, almost anything one can imagine.

"We have gobi stones from Inner Mongolia, marble stones from Dali in Yunnan Province, Lingbi stones from Anhui Province, Honghe River stones, agate stones and Hotan jade from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region," Zhu said.

Also attracting visitors were some marvelous pieces of Ming and Qing style furniture.

One of the most striking was a "Dragon Bed" made of red sandalwood featuring more than 100 dragons, which were vividly carved on the bed stead, the bedrest, bedcover and cabinet legs.

"The dragon was an imperial totem in ancient China. Only kings and queens were allowed to use artifacts bearing five-claw dragons. As for their relatives and top officials, they could only use articles with three-claw dragons," said Wu Qingping, general manager of Jinling Museum of Ming and Qing Classical Furniture in Nanjing.

He said the bed originally belonged to an old lady who once worked as a maid for He Shen, a corrupt top official in the Qing Dynasty.

That may or may not be true but the workmanship in the red sandalwood makes the Qing bed even more valuable.

The Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty were in the golden age of Chinese classical furniture. The technique and skills reached a level never before achieved. The choice of hard wood was one of the main reasons because of its beautiful, elegant colors and fine grain.

Ming Dynasty furniture is usually called Ming style furniture and was usually made of hardwood from India, Mynamar and southeast Asia, such as red sandalwood and yellow rosewood, teak and red wood among others.

The style of Qing style furniture is completely different from the Ming style. And the materials used were also slightly different. Red sandalwood and redwood were the main materials for Qing style furniture. The texture of red sandalwood is among the best of all hard wood and it is also the heaviest.
 
Editor: Catherine