Interview with the designer of "Ming and Qing furniture-bearing tools" special stamps

Elegant, concise and fluent, these words are far from enough to describe the style and temperament of Ming and Qing furniture, but Ma Gang, a talented designer, is bent on expressing the wordless beauty of Ming and Qing furniture through stamps.

"Ming and Qing Furniture-Entrepreneurship" is the second set of "Ming and Qing Furniture" stamps issued last year. The designer is still Professor Ma Gang from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but this time he has a cooperation assistant Yu Shan. Due to the change of the whole series of planning and other reasons, the specifications of the "Orientation" stamps were changed from the full set of 6 "Seating" stamps issued last year to a full set of 4 stamps such as flat head, square table, incense candle, crooked head and wine table. None of these classic works handed down from the vast classical furniture culture is easy to give up, which is the first challenge Ma Gang encountered. Repeated consideration and careful selection are the lessons from the beginning of design.

Two big ones and two small ones: the design and specifications of stamps

The four stamps are Huang Huali's flat head case (one leg and three teeth) in the Ming Dynasty now in Guanfu Museum, Huang Huali's carved square table in the Qing Dynasty now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, Huang Huali's stone-inlaid incense sticks (three-legged music, mud-set, wood and stone set each other off) in the Ming Dynasty now overseas, and the iron elephant's head case in the Palace Museum. The original furniture is two big and two small, and the stamp specifications are also designed into two big and two small according to the size of real furniture, that is, two pieces of 50 mm× 30 mm and two pieces of 40 mm× 30 mm.

Chew on words: words are also romantic.

Accurate and classic words are the uniqueness of this set of stamps. Words and descriptions can be found everywhere on stamps and small promissory notes. There are four intriguing words, such as "one leg and three teeth", "slow and steady", "clear and white", "Gu Zhuo is simple", "rolling feet and standing leaves", "wood and stone set each other off", "peace on all sides" and "high gas bureau". These special terms for evaluating Ming and Qing furniture are aimed at the furniture selected by Ma Gang and co-designer Yu Shan from professional books. These words were written by the famous painter Mr. Du Dakai, and their calligraphy style is very similar to the simple and elegant appearance of Ming and Qing furniture. Earlier, when Ma Gang started to collect furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasties, he was also amazed and intoxicated by these words and furniture. China's traditional furniture and traditional culture are so inseparable!

There is a large section of information on furniture bearings in Ming and Qing Dynasties on the whole ticket and small promissory note, which was compiled by Ma Gang and Yushan and examined and approved by furniture experts in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The English information of the promissory note was translated by Curtis, an American furniture expert in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Ma Gang spent a lot of time and energy collecting written materials, and specially translated them into Chung ying Cheng for Chinese and foreign philatelists who appreciate this set of stamps to understand. Therefore, the whole set of stamps can not only stand the scrutiny of the design content, but also stand the professional taste of the text.

Small promissory note, whole ticket: more exciting than picture books

The small promissory note draws lessons from the style of the "Zuo" stamp issued last year, and still uses the woodcut illustrations of ancient books in Yuan Dynasty in its design, showing the functions and characteristics of the holder through the illustrations of ancient books outside the ticket. Compared with simple and generous stamp patterns, small promissory notes have furniture, characters, story lines and text descriptions, which vividly and concretely show the use occasions and ways of various containers. Because the number of stamps is not enough to show the elegance of all containers, in addition to the four containers displayed on the stamps, the designer also displayed several other small containers with distinctive features on the small promissory note, such as the wine table and the four-sided table of rosewood (collected by Zhejiang Museum), which enriched the information of the small promissory note and even surpassed the picture book. The words on the whole ticket are beautiful, and the bridge ticket is composed of calligraphy, which enriches the layout information. It can be said that the small promissory note and the whole ticket condensed the essence of furniture carrying tools in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Serial: Let you have a look

"Ming and Qing Furniture" is a set of stamps. This series is not only reflected in the name of the ticket, the number of complete sets and the specifications of the stamps, but also in the style and consistency of the stamps. The same designer provides favorable conditions for maintaining this consistency. After careful observation, we can find that the font, face value, leisure stamp of "Ming and Qing Furniture" decorated with stamp patterns and rare books cited in small promissory notes are the same as or very similar to the "seating" stamps issued last year.

Red "Ming and Qing furniture" leisure stamps, wishful clouds and blank background are all common elements of this series of stamps.

Printing process: slight embossing

This set of stamps was printed by Henan Stamp Printing Factory. To this end, Ma Gang traveled from Beijing to Henan many times to exchange printing technology suitable for stamps with technicians. Ma Gang found that if the embossing process is adopted, a little embossing effect will be just right. If the embossing process is too deep, the furniture on the stamp will have some modernity. Therefore, he jokingly said, "You are the best to cut corners!" After several discussions, Mr. Lin, the director in charge of technology in Henan Stamp Printing Factory, deeply touched Ma Gang with his meticulous professionalism and love and persistence in stamp technology research. Two "workaholics" who somewhat appreciate each other sincerely cooperate to create stamps that satisfy stamp collectors.

Stamp temperament: cultural connotation

Ma Gang, whose eyes were shining and his mouth kept popping out the jargon of Ming and Qing furniture, was an "enthusiast" of Ming and Qing furniture for many years. In his eyes, the beauty of Ming and Qing furniture is now reflected in every radian of modeling, in every pattern, in words and in the elegance of furniture. What I am afraid of is that the fine gap between the flat tooth plate and the two flanks cannot be revealed, and the expression of "one leg and three teeth" is unclear. Ma Gang didn't use the photographer's photos, but personally adjusted the photography angle and took the flat case shown in the first stamp. For the second time, he turned to Curtis, a foreign expert, to translate the text description (when designing the "seat", he asked Curtis to help solve the copyright problem); In order to get the copyright of Stone Fragrance, he went south to Hong Kong and asked Ms. Wu, an enthusiastic senior professional, for help. Circular and square leisure stamps are scattered in the ticket office, and the outline outside the stamp pattern is the outline of the furniture atlas. The embellishment of wishful cloud patterns commonly used in Ming and Qing furniture appears on all tickets and small promissory notes. The cultural temperament of stamps everywhere stems from his understanding and love for furniture and stamp design in Ming and Qing Dynasties.