Chinese Side Cabinet with 2 Doors

Black cabinet with painted birds and blooms, and a metal lock plate keeping watch.

This side cabinet with 2 doors is from Shanxi Province, China, and is ca. 1880. It is lacquered & painted elm wood. During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, a great deal of antique Chinese furniture was burned, confiscated or scattered, which the article says helped start the scarcity of such pieces. Two doors meet at a round metal plate, each painted with red peonies, broad green leaves and small birds on a dark ground. Fine gold lines frame the doors. A carved fretwork base runs below, and the top shows some cracking. It is 43.5 inches long, 19.25 deep and 34 high.

Secrets stay inside, the garden stays on the doors.