Antique Chinese Painted Trunk

Details

Description

Antique painted chinese trunk in pine wood, provincial painted furniture with polychrome composition originating from inner mongolia and dated circa … Read more Antique painted chinese trunk in pine wood, provincial painted furniture with polychrome composition originating from inner mongolia and dated circa 1900. Originates from inner mongolia, in northern china, from the late 19th century, where local pine was worked using mortise-and-tenon joinery without nails, with fronts painted in polychrome compositions.

in the mongol homes of northern china, painted trunks were central pieces of the wedding trousseau and the family treasury: they held textiles, clothing and personal objects, and fulfilled both a symbolic and a decorative function. The density of the pictorial decoration on the front matched the social role of the piece within the home, equivalent to that of large lacquered furniture in other regional traditions.

built in solid pine using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, without nails. Rectangular case with a hinged lid and forged iron front fittings allowing closure with a padlock. The front concentrates all the pictorial decoration; the sides and lid retain the pine tone with traces of pigment.

the front articulates a central painted panel with two female figures wearing traditional garments — red, blue and yellow — beneath an arch with stylised clouds. The borders and corners are closed with red and ochre geometric meanders, rosettes and lotus motifs. The palette — black, red, blue, ochre — is characteristic of popular painting from northern china in the late qing period.

the patina retains the original pigments with a matte sheen and an irregular surface. The painting on the front shows soft losses and craquelure proper to natural ageing; the sides and lid show broad abrasions in contact areas. The structure remains solid, the original fittings in place.

it fits naturally in eclectic, wabi-sabi or contemporary rustic interiors. It works as a low coffee table, a storage piece at the foot of a bed or an autonomous decorative piece in an entrance. The density of the pictorial composition turns it into a visual focus within a sober space.

details

dimensions: length 91 cm – width 56 cm – height 61 cm
style: painted provincial furniture from inner mongolia
materials and techniques: solid pine, pigments on wood, forged iron hardware; mortise-and-tenon joinery without nails, painted front with central figurative scene and perimeter geometric meander
place of origin: inner mongolia, china
period: late qing dynasty (circa 1900)
date of manufacture: circa 1900
condition / notes: sound structure. Original paint with soft losses and craquelure. Original fittings. Wear consistent with age and use.


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