Cambodian Manuscript Cabinet with 4 Doors

Sky-blue doors, red frames, and gold flowers wherever they could possibly fit.

This manuscript cabinet with 4 doors comes from Cambodia, late 19th century, in polychromed and gilded wood. Across Buddhist Southeast Asia, monasteries and households often kept palm-leaf and other sacred texts in painted cabinets, protected from damp and insects. Stepped moldings crown this one, picked out in gold and red. Each of the four doors holds a recessed blue panel inside red and pale frames, with small round knobs at the meeting edges. The blue looks worn in places, and gilded vines climb the sides. Sixty-five inches high and 48 inches wide.

Knowledge has seldom been kept in better color.