Chinese Coffer with 3 Drawers & 3 Doors: Landscape Motif

Misty ink landscapes decorate this sideboard's three doors, as if painted on an afternoon off.

This coffer with 3 drawers & 3 doors is from Gansu Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is lacquered & painted pine wood. As original period furniture became harder to find, restoration artists began salvaging fragments from incomplete pieces to make complete ones, and eventually full reproductions began to surface. Low sideboard in deep reddish brown with three drawers across the top. Three framed door panels show sepia mountains, water and pines on a pale ground. Square legs rise with small bracketed spandrels. It is 101 inches long, 19.5 deep and 37 high.

Little scenery, big patience, brush in a steady hand.