Chinese Rustic Altar Cabinet with 2 Doors

A long black sideboard with two small doors, in a mood for dark and plain.

This rustic altar cabinet with 2 doors is from China, and dates to the 19th century. It is carved & lacquered 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. Long, low sideboard with a flat top that overhangs at the ends, and a central pair of small doors with metal pulls. A stretcher frame joins the straight legs. Black finish, worn and rubbed on the edges. It is 67 inches long, 19.5 deep and 32 high.

Severe in color and quietly generous in length.