by Julie Look
Get a feeling for traditional Chinese households at "Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture," a nine-month exhibit opening today at the Pacific Heritage Museum in San Francisco.
About 90 pieces of hardwood furniture from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties (circa 1550- 1735 A.D.), and 70 pieces of tomb pottery furniture from the early- to mid-Ming period are on display. (Pictured is an incense stand with "dragonfly" legs.)
Until recently, the collection was housed by the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture in Oregon House, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Members of San Francisco's Chinese community worked with the museum to help give the collection a wider audience, says curator Curtis Evarts.
At the Pacific Heritage Museum, the furniture is grouped to indicate its use in typical rooms: For example, one grouping shows a Chinese scholar's bedroom, with a daybed, small cabinet, clothes rack and washbasin.
"We designed the room after a late Ming scholar's dissertation on how the room should be appointed," says Evarts. The scholar wrote that the room's pieces should be plain and simple, not ornate as they would be in a lady's bedroom.
Visitors can also enjoy free wine-tasting next door offered by Renaissance Vineyard and Winery, operated by the Fellowship of Friends, which owns the furniture collection.
The classical Chinese furniture exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, through March 1996, at the Pacific Heritage Museum, 608 Commercial Street (at Montgomery Street). Admission is free. Information, (415) 399-1124.
