Chinese Painted Trunk on Base

Scarlet box on stilts, wearing its gold flowers a little threadbare.

This painted trunk on base is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and dates to the early 20th century. It is lacquered elm wood & brass. Once China slowly opened to visiting diplomats and businessmen, a trickle of antique furniture leaving the country became a flood that lasted through the 1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Flat-topped red trunk with a large metal lock plate and a hasp. Painted gilt blossoms and scrolls cover the front, partly rubbed away. Matching red legs curve into outward feet, and the corners show scrapes. It is 31 inches long, 20 deep and 18.5 high.

Faded florals add up to a rather glamorous trunk.