Chinese Flat File Side Cabinet with 6 Drawers

Six shallow drawers stacked in vermilion, each with its own brass smile.

This flat file side cabinet with 6 drawers comes from Hebei Province, China, and is contemporary, in lacquered elm wood. Flat files are generally built to keep papers, maps and drawings lying flat, which makes their shallow drawers equally good for small things that tend to wander. The case is finished in a bright orange-red lacquer, lightly speckled with dark flecks. Each drawer carries a curved brass bail pull on round bosses, lined up in a neat column. The case sits on a separate black stand with square legs. It is 18 inches long, 24 deep and 26 high.

Filing, at last, with a sense of color.