Asian Joinery

                                          Asian Joinery 

As the existing largest and oldest wooden pagoda structure in China, Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is also known as Sakyamuni Pagoda, for there are two tooth relics of Sakyamuni (preserved in a side hall of Fogong Temple and need an extra charge of CNY 100). Located in Fogong Temple of Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, it is 76km south of Datong City (about 1.5 hours’ drive). The pagoda was built in 1056 (under the reign of Liao Dynasty), and during its nearly 1000 years’ history, the pagoda has survived several large earthquakes (that’s really amazing considering the whole pagoda is built of wood). It highly represents the ancient architecture art of China.

Sitting on a 4 m tall stone platform, the pagoda is 67.31 meters in height, which is higher than a 20-storey building in modern times. The base floor of the pagoda is 30.27 meters in diameter, and the whole pagoda weighs about 7400 metric tons.

According to The Business Research Company’s manufactured wood materials market report, Asia Pacific was the largest region in the global manufactured wood materials market, accounting for 49.9% of the total in 2019. It was followed by North America, Western Europe, and then the other regions.

One of the reasons why joints were so complex in China, Japan and Korea was the climate. There are huge changes of temperature and humidity throughout the whole of central and south-east Asia, and many European colonists discovered the furniture they took with them from Europe fell to pieces because the animal glue softened in the high humidity and heat. The woodworkers of those countries found that it was necessary to make interlocking joints which had mechanical strength rather than rely on glued joints. I recall the world-record price 18th-century mirror that I worked on at Sotheby’s, pictured left, which had tiny bamboo dowels joining the 6mm-thick backboards rather than the European equivalent which would be a 

rubbed joint.

This is not to say that oriental furniture was not glued; it just didn’t rely so heavily upon glue. There is a similarity with 18th-century Continental chairs which tended to be pegged and glued as opposed to British ones which were only glued. One could perhaps argue that Continental colonial furniture stood up to high humidity better than British furniture! One of the roles of the furniture restorer in China was to replace and tighten the dovetail wedges used when the joints in furniture had become loose. One needs to remember that the whole assemblage of a piece of Chinese furniture depends upon the interlocking joints for stability. The top is not glued up, followed by the legs being glued on etc. The frame holds the top boards, the legs then anchor the frame, and the dovetail wedges anchor the whole lot together.”