Chinese Cabinet with 3 Drawers & 2 Doors

Broad red cabinet with side panels full of tiny painted designs and a drawer row below.

This cabinet with 3 drawers & 2 doors is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is lacquered & painted 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. Three horizontal drawers sit below, with painted fronts. Two center doors closed by a decorated metal plate, flanked by narrow panels painted with small vases and symbols. Plain tall legs. Deep red, crackled and worn. It is 64 inches long, 25 deep and 79.5 high.

A well-organized cabinet that is not shy about decoration.