Chinese Wood Book Cabinet

Speckled cabinet with open shelves in the middle and metal plates all over.

This book cabinet is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is lacquered 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. Corner metal fittings frame the doors. Tall form: an upper cupboard with a metal lock plate, an open pair of shelves in the center, and a lower double-door cupboard with another round plate. The surface is flecked amber and brown. It is 40.5 inches long, 18 deep and 72 high.

A leopard-print cabinet with shelves, which is bolder than it sounds.