Shanxi Carved Cedar Screen, Set of 3

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Screens built with this much carving in three separate registers weren't made for a single afternoon's work. Each of these … Read more Screens built with this much carving in three separate registers weren't made for a single afternoon's work. Each of these three panels breaks into three distinct sections, a carved frieze of scrolling foliage at the top, a pierced fretwork window below it with a carved figural roundel at its center, a figure caught mid-scene beneath a tree, and a narrative band further down showing a small gathering of figures, before the panel closes out in plain, solid cedar at the base. We found this set in Shanxi, a province whose merchant families built entire courtyard compounds around exactly this kind of ambitious woodwork, hiring carvers to turn ordinary architectural elements into something worth looking at twice.

The wood has aged to a warm, golden elm tone, and the depth of the fretwork lets light pass clean through the middle register while the top and bottom stay solid. These were built to do real work as doors or a room divider, and they still can, split apart for use as individual closet doors, reassembled as a folding screen, or mounted flat as a dramatic headboard. At 51 inches wide per panel and 87 inches tall, the scale alone makes a statement wherever they land.

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