Ming-style furnitures.

With its fabulous shapes, unique historical value, and impeccable craftsmanship, Ming-style furniture enchants domestic and overseas collectors alike. Western collectors even hail it as furniture in its most perfect form.

Gustav Ecke, Pioneer Expert on Ming-style Furniture

In 1944, German national Gustav Ecke published Chinese Domestic Furniture in Photographs and Measured Drawings, which is regarded as the Bible of Ming-style furniture study among wood ware collectors.

Ecke came to China in the 1920s and taught at Xiamen University, Tsinghua University, and Fu Jen Catholic University. He achieved considerable attainments in the study of ancient Chinese jade ware, bronze ware, and drawings, and had an intimate association with famous Chinese architects Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen. He even became one of the founding members of the Society for the Study of Chinese Architecture.

Ecke was obsessed with Ming-style furniture, and devoted to its collection and study. The English edition of Chinese Domestic Furniture in Photographs and Measured Drawings was published in Beiping (Beijing) in June 1944 when the city was occupied by Japanese invaders. Limited by the printing conditions of the time, only 200 copies of the book were printed.

In the 18th century, Chinese furniture spread to Europe and the United States. Ecke's work presented the beauty of ancient Chinese furniture to the world, and also attracted the attention of domestic and Western furniture, architecture, cultural relics, interior design, and history circles. As well as the book, Ecke also published some significant papers on Chinese hardwood furniture. Ecke's Chinese wife, Zeng Youhe, had a profound love for traditional Chinese culture. Zeng once learned traditional Chinese painting from such masters as Qi Gong and Pu Xuezhai. While studying at Fu Jen Catholic University, she met Ecke. They soon fell in love and married. In 1948, the couple migrated to the United States. Due to his expertise in traditional Chinese art, Ecke was appointed to teach Art History of East Asia at Hawaii University.

Ecke died from a heart attack in 1971 aged 75. On September 20, 2006, Zeng donated their seven-piece collection of Ming scented wood furniture to the Prince Gong's Mansion Management Center. Among all donated objects of Ming furniture since the management center formally began to solicit cultural relics from the public, Zeng's donation stands out as having the highest academic value.

Zeng said, "I'm already in my 80s. It's better for me to leave the furniture to China, to the people."