Auctions: A chance to step into the world of tansu | Philadelphia Inquirer ... Philadelphia Inquirer
Forget your Chippendale, your Sheraton, your Queen Anne. The new kid on the (auction) block is the Japanese furniture style tansu.
An angular wooden cabinetry designed for function and portability, tansu sometimes looks as if it was made from building blocks - particularly in the pieces resembling a flight of steps. If you are not familiar with it, you can see examples of tansu up close next week at William H. Bunch Auctions and Appraisals' gallery in Chadds Ford, where they will be included in the winter sale of fine and decorative art.
The four pieces included in the 425 lots, being sold starting at noon Tuesday, were consigned by a woman who bought them in Manhattan. She is selling the pieces because she is relocating to Rehobeth, Md., and they would not fit the decor of her beach house there, Bunch said this week.
"This is not a style or taste that you often see on the Main Line," Bunch said. "It's a little more New York or Pacific Rim."
Tansu dates as far back as seventh-century Japan, according to various online histories, where it was designed as a cross between furniture and folk art. It came into its own between 1860 and 1910, the Meiji period.
The top piece being sold is a step tansu, 58 inches wide, 70 inches high, and 21 inches deep, with seven steps and about a dozen drawers and compartments. It has a presale estimate of $1,000 to $1,500, according to its entry in the auction's online catalog, accessible at www.williambunchauctions.com .
Also in the sale are a two-part kitchen tansu ($1,000 to $1,500), a small kitchen tansu, and a tea tansu with four wooden sliding doors over two sliding doors of glass (each $400 to $800).
