Chinese Altar with Canopy Top Over Cabinet with 3 Drawers

Twin pagoda roofs, red columns, and a black cabinet base that keeps its composure.

This altar with canopy top over cabinet with 3 drawers is from Hunan Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is elm wood. As original period furniture became harder to find, restoration artists began salvaging fragments from incomplete pieces to make complete ones, and eventually full reproductions began to surface. A broad black cabinet with drawers and round lock plates supports a tall red and black carved shrine front. Curved tiled roofs rise in three tiers with upturned corners. Lattice panels fill the center. It is 84 inches long, 30 deep and 84 high.

Roofs on roofs, and not one is shy.