Chinese Wardrobe with 2 Doors

Slender doors streaked like old rain on a window, framed in a narrow dark cabinet.

This wardrobe with 2 doors is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 18th century. It is lacquered 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. Two doors under a thin overhanging top fill the front, each with a moulded edge. Dark lacquer survives in patches over a reddish brown ground, with mottled bare areas near the middle. Legs are cut with shallow notched feet. It is 51.5 inches long, 21.5 deep and 77 high.

It stands there patiently, losing paint with grace.