연륜연대법을 이용한 반닫이 가구의 과학적 연대측정과 산지추정

Abstract

This paper intended to scientifically set the historical dates of 17 Korean chests with a flap door, which are kept in 6 museums including National Folk Museum of Korea, using dendrochronology which was successfully applied to the research of Korean old architectures. The material for the research was restricted to pine trees only because in Korea, annual ring database necessary for scientific dating is available only for the pine trees. Measuring the absolute year by use of the annual ring age is advantageous in that it is accurate enough to make no error of even a year, but it is disadvantageous in that the wood for research should be perfect wood with bark. However, when wooden furniture or wooden crafted products are made, the bark gets trimmed so a part or the whole of sapwoods becomes broken so the average annual rings of the sapwoods should be calculated and the year of felling should be analogized, through which the time of the manufacture can be calculated. This paper attempted to clarify the changes in the Korean chests with a flap door by age after making the chronology of them. It also intended to investigate the origin of the wood through the patterns of annual rings, and further, to research the origin of the furniture. As a result of dating, it was found that most of the chests were made in the 19th century through the modern times. Among the investigated 17 Korean chests with a flap door, 3 was found to belong to the beginning of the 19th century, 2 to the 20th century, and the remaining 12 to the middle and the latter period of the 19th century. Most of them were concentrated in the period of the middle and the latter part of the 19th century so it was not reasonable to discuss the changes by period. However, if the changes should be discussed, the Korean chest with a flap door in Gyeongsang-do tended to have lower height as time went on. The average age of the wood used for the Korean chests with a flap door was over 130 years, and it had good quality. It was also found that the origin of the pine trees and the origin of the furniture couldn't be always consistent. The wood for furniture should have good quality so it was highly possible to transport wood (if it is not too huge in volume) from a long distance. Especially, as the wood resource became exhausted in the neighboring districts, the long-distance transportation of wood became active in the end of the 19th century and the commercial transaction of wood got generalized.