Chinese Flat File Cabinet with 5 Drawers

Maps, drawings, prints. Some things refuse to be folded.

This flat file cabinet with 5 drawers comes from Hebei Province, China, and is contemporary, in walnut. Flat files were designed so that architects, map-makers and print collectors could store large sheets without rolling or creasing them, in wide, shallow drawers. A rich, reddish grain runs across the front, repeated in the top. Each long drawer carries a pair of brass bail handles. The case sits on a separate stand with thick, square legs, and the stand's rail shows a lively figure. It measures 36 inches long, 24 deep and 29 high.

Paper has seldom been so well housed.