Chinese Cabinet with 2 Doors

Blue doors with painted lotus flowers and birds, scuffed like a well-loved painting.

This cabinet with 2 doors is from Qinghai Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is painted & lacquered poplar. 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. Visible is a low two-door cabinet with deep blue panels, each painted with pink and white lotus blossoms and a pair of birds. The frame is dark with chipped edges. Small round locks and short square feet complete it. It is 45.5 inches long, 15.75 deep and 33.5 high.

Painted gardens survive a lot of scuffs.