Tibetan Cabinet with Floral Motifs

Eight gardens on one cabinet, and not a wilted leaf among them.

This cabinet with floral motifs comes from Tibet and dates to the 19th century. It is painted pine wood. Tibetan households and monasteries used painted cabinets like this to store clothes, textiles and religious items, with flowers a favorite auspicious decoration. Eight large orange panels repeat the same blossoming plant in pink, white and blue, with four smaller floral panels below. Dark red framing is lined with gold scrollwork and topped by a key-fret border. Fifty-four inches long and forty-eight high.

Somebody had a steady hand and no interest in restraint.