130:, who were the first to collect and catalog classic Chinese furniture. Few Chinese scholars had done research on the subject and Chinese collectors showed interest only in ornate carved and lacquered pieces. The hard times of the 1920s and 1930s forced many families to sell their finest pieces, and many were lost or even burned for fuel. Ecke and Sickman walked or rode by donkey through many parts of China in search of architecture and furniture. Ecke's taste had been shaped by the
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movement in the
Germany of his youth and its call for utilitarian beauty. One historian of art notes that he was "naturally attracted to the minimally decorated geometric forms and subtle beauty of what has become known as Ming-style furniture or classical Chinese furniture," that is, hardwood pieces
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Soon after arriving in China in the early 1920s, Ecke turned his attention to China's architectural history. Since there were few surviving wooden structures, he initially photographed and recorded stone buildings in Fujian, where he then taught. After moving to
Beijing, he researched as many stone
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Ecke faced significant problems preparing his research in wartime. There were few reference works to rely on, little money for research assistance, travel was dangerous, and printing resources few. Ecke took apart and measured the furniture in his own collection to give detailed drawings of its
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The book was influential in its choice of topic and manner of treatment. The classical style of furniture came to dominate the tastes of
American collectors after the war partly because of this Bauhaus influence which Ecke and other scholars trained in Europe conveyed.
30:, first published in wartime China in 1944. The book presented the aesthetic of a neglected art form for scholars and connoisseurs and described the techniques of construction for cabinet-makers. It was the first book in any language on
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construction. Photographs, some full-page, and drawings by Ecke's collaborator
Professor Yang Yue, show the construction of beds, chairs, tables, wardrobes, wash stands, clothes racks and other domestic items.
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in the "Ming-style," not necessarily furniture made in the Ming dynasty. These foreign scholars wrote the first books on what came to be known as
Chinese "classic furniture."
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was published in a limited portfolio edition of 200 copies in
Beijing in 1944, then reprinted as a standard book by Tuttle in 1962 and Dover Publications in 1985.
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The twin pagodas of Zayton; a study of later Buddhist sculpture in China
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and made lively by refugees from their home countries. His father, also
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Jaquillard, Pierre (1972). "In Memoriam: Gustav Ecke 1896-1971".
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Chinese domestic furniture in photographs and measured drawings
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Chinese Domestic Furniture in Photographs and Measured Drawings
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358:. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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407:Wisnosky, John; Klobe, Tom (2002).
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