Chinese Side Cabinet with 2 Doors and Landscape Motif

Squat cabinet with gold painted scenes glittering through a very dark, crackled surface.

This side cabinet with 2 doors and landscape motif is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the mid 19th century. It is elm wood & pine. 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. The form is a low two-door cabinet in blackened lacquer, its doors and sides covered with faded gold painted flowers and birds. Round ring pulls hang at the center. Short legs end in small curled feet. It is 32 inches long, 18 deep and 22 high.

Dark outside, glittering in detail, and quite pleased.