Chinese Wood Day Bed

Long low daybed with a short back rail and the color of dark chocolate.

This day bed is from Hebei Province, China, and dates to the late 19th century. It is elm wood. Tibetans were traditionally semi-nomadic and owned few personal furnishings, so most Tibetan furniture stood in monasteries, and some of it was carted over the Himalayas to India as monasteries were destroyed. Rectangular platform with a raised lip along the back and sides. Short legs end in small inward-curling feet. The surface is a deep brown-purple with visible grain, matte patches and soft wear on the corners. It is 80.5 inches long, 28.5 deep and 19.5 high.

A bed for napping on, and for being nobly dark about.