Chinese Wedding Bed with Sleeping Panels

A whole room in a bed, with carved eaves and a tiny red table inside.

This wedding bed with sleeping panels is from Fujian Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is gilded fir wood & mother of pearl. 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. Large canopy bed built like a pavilion, with layered carved eaves across the top and panels of gilt and painted figures at the sides. Inside is a yellow floor with a small red table, and the dark frame has red-brown tones. It is 84 inches long, 58 deep and 91 high.

Bedroom, hallway and tiny theater, all in one.