Chinese Carrying Cabinet with Octagonal Top

Eight-sided tray, knobbed uprights and cupboard below, in a slightly more worn black.

This carrying cabinet with octagonal top 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. Octagonal top has a thin lip and holds a short railed frame between two posts topped with small finials. Under the tray sit a single drawer and a pair of doors with round metal pulls. Surface is dark and gently scuffed. It is 24 inches long, 24 deep and 42 high.

Plenty of room for tea, and very little room for argument.