Chinese Double Doors with Lunette Transom

Arched doorway pair with a barred fan window and two narrow glass slots.

This double doors with lunette transom is from Shanghai, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is lacquered wood & wrought iron. 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. Double doors in worn dark blue-green, topped by a half-round transom with a fine iron grille. Each leaf has a narrow barred glass opening above recessed lower panels. The paint is chipped at edges. It is 28 inches long, 4 deep and 83 high.

A grand entrance, slightly peeling, entirely sincere.