Tibetan Cabinet with Tiger Motif

A wooden box that has decided, against all evidence, to be a tiger.

This cabinet with tiger motif comes from Tibet and dates to the 19th century. It is painted pine wood. Tigers have a long presence in Tibetan art, where they are generally associated with power and protection. Here wavy red-brown stripes ripple across a yellow-orange ground, around all of the front and down the broad, plank-like legs. Small rings fill in the margins, closer to a leopard's spots. The top is plain and very dark. It measures 34.5 inches long, 12.5 deep and 25.5 high.

It has the confidence of something that has never been contradicted.