Chinese Portable Altar in Cabinet, with 2 Doors

Open doors reveal a honeycomb of tiny drawers and carved ornament inside.

This portable altar in cabinet, with 2 doors is from China, and dates to the 18th century. It is elm wood. Once China slowly opened to visiting diplomats and businessmen, a trickle of antique furniture leaving the country became a flood that lasted through the 1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Cabinet with two doors flung open, showing a carved frame around many small pigeonhole drawers in warm brown wood. A shallow overhanging top covers the case, and the door interiors are dark red. It is 37 inches long, 24 deep and 49.5 high.

Secrets, sorted into dozens of little compartments.