明清古典家具术语中英文对照 （上）

矮老: Pillar-shaped strut.

矮面盆架: Washbasin stand.

矮桌展腿式: Low table with extended legs. Low waisted table which is transformed into a high table by adding round extensions to the square legs.

案: Recessed-leg table.

暗抽屉: Hidden drawers, opened by raising from underneath rather than with a pull.

凹面: Concave moulding

Chinese antique furniture glossary - B

拔步床: Alcove [5AlkEJv] bedstead.

百宝嵌: One-hundred- precious-material inlay.

半槽地: Half-and-half relief. The most common type of relief carving with relief and ground occupying about the same amount of space.

半桌: Half table, slightly larger than half an eight Immortals [9ImR:`tel] table.

抱鼓: Embracing drums. The drum-shaped elements at the top of a shoe-foot used to hold the spandrels of screens, clothes racks and lampstands in position.

抱肩榫: Embracing-shoulder tenon. A mitred joint used in waisted furniture of the corner-leg construc-tion to attach the leg and apron. A concealed triangular-shaped tenon in the apron fits into a mortise in the leg. Simultaneously a concealed long and vertical dovetailed tenon slides into a mortise in the apron.

宝塔纹: Pagoda pattern. Term used in Suzhou to describe the natural grain of beech.

包镶: Complete veneer, a hardwood veneer covering the entire piece of furniture.

宝座: Throne, for emperor or god.

宝座式镜台: Throne-type mirror platform.

霸王枨: Giant's arm brace, extending from the leg to the underside of the table top at a 45° angle.

八仙桌: Eight Immortals table. Square table suitable for seating eight people.

边簧: Tongue, on four sides of the floating panel of a table top.

边框: Frame.

边抹: Square or rectangular frame, consisting of two sides with tenons and two sides with mortises (.榫眼matou).

鳔胶: Fish glue, the best cabinetmaker's glue made from the air bladder of the yellow croaker fish.

冰盘沿: Ice-plate edge. General term for allinward-sloping mouldings.

波纹: Wave lattice. Term found in Yuan ye (The Art of the Garden) and also used for furniture.

步步高 赶枨: Stepped chair stretchers. Chair stretchers which are arranged with the front one lowest, the side ones higher, and the back one highest, so that the joints do not overlap.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - C

踩: Lowering the surface of the wood. General term popular among craftsmen.

草龙: Curling limbed dragon. Stylized dragon pattern in which the legs and tail turn into curls, derived from the curling tendril design.

侧脚: Splayed legs. Term borrowed from ancient architecture (where it describes the splay of pillars at the base) to describe the slight splay of furniture legs at their base.

茶几: Tea table. High table derived from the Ming incense table and popular in Qing times.

插肩榫: Inserted shoulder joint. One of the essential joints of the recessed-leg construction. The upper part of the leg is split to form two tenoned pieces; the front one is made shoulder-like so that it can be inserted into cavities in the apron. When the joint is in place the surfaces of leg and apron are flush.

铲地浮雕: Relief carving on smoothed ground.

长凳: Long bench, general term.

长方凳: Rectangular stool.

缠枝莲纹: Scrolling lotus design.

朝衣柜: Court costume cabinet. Compound wardrobe in four parts with side panels. A kind of sijiangui with panels between the doors and outer frames which make the wardrobe wide enough for court costumes to be placed inside without being folded.

插屏式座屏风: Removable-panel screen set in a stand, the panel having tongues which can be slid in and out of grooves in the vertical pillars.

枨子: Stretcher. Member used mainly to connect two legs.

螭虎闹灵芝: Hornless dragons inter-twined with Iingzhi fungus.

螭纹: Stylized hornless dragon design.

抽屉架: Drawer frame, put inside a cabinet or shelf to hold the drawers.

抽屉脸: Front of a drawer.

抽屉桌: Narrow table with drawers.

橱: Cabinet, southern term for gui, which is more current in the north.

穿带: Penetrating transverse brace, which fits into a groove in the floating panel.

床: Bed, which in China is used for daytime sitting as well as sleeping. General term for both large and small beds.

床围子: Railing on Luohan and canopy bed.

床衣镜: Full-length mirror, a type derived from a screen set into a base which became popular during he Qing dynasty.

春凳: Large bench. In south China the term refers to a bench for two or more people. Northerners use this term only for a bench for more than two people.

攒: To join.

攒斗: Latticework. Literally joining the straight and assembling the curved, two methods of making lattice. General term which is a contraction of cuanjie and doucu.

攒牙子: Apron or apron and spandrel made by joining the straight.

攒边打槽装板: Assembling a mortised-and-tenoned frame with floating panel. This is done by first making a groove all around the inner edge of the frame and then inserting the tongue of the panel.

攒边装板围子: Railing of a Luohan bed consisting of frames with inset panels.

攒接: Joining the straight. Term used for the method of making a lattice from short straight pieces of wood, placed vertically, horizontally, and sometimes diagonally, and mortised and tenoned together. The resulting lattice may have square or rounded corners.

攒接围子: Bed railing made by joining the straight.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - D

搭板书案: Board and stand desk, consisting of a top resting on two separate stands with drawers which originally were not intended to be used apart from the table.

大边: Tenon-bearing frame member. If the frame is rectangular the term refers to the two long pieces with tenons; if square, it indicates the two tenon-bearing members; if round, each piece is called a dabian.

大方扛箱: Large square box carried on a pole. Term used in Lu Ban jing (Lu Ban's Classic) for a large picnic box.

带: Transverse brace, which always connects the tenon-bearing frame members. General term which includes the penetrating transverse brace and the curved transverse brace.

带口: Dovetailed groove for the penetrating trans-verse brace on the back of a floating panel.

大理石: Marble, and in particular Dali marble, from Mount Diancang点苍 in the Dali District of Yunnan Province.

搭脑: Top rail. Highest rail on the back of a chair. The term also refers to the highest horizontal member of any frame, such as a clothes rack or towel rack.

挡板: Inset panel on a recessed-leg table with side panels. It usually has openwork carving finished on both sides and sits on a side floor stretcher or base stretchers.

倒棱: Rounding the edges. Procedure done to soften the sharp edges of a member.

打洼: Concave moulding; also called aomian or wamian.

大叶榆: Large leaf elm, a kind of ju wood; also called juyu.