Low Antique Polychrome Carved Fir Cabinet, Xinjiang, China, 1900

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This antique carved polychrome low cabinet in fir is a Uyghur cabinet from Xinjiang with two doors, two drawers and … Read more This antique carved polychrome low cabinet in fir is a Uyghur cabinet from Xinjiang with two doors, two drawers and geometric carving in colour. It originates from Xinjiang, in the far north-west of China, from the Qing dynasty, where fir was carved and then coloured with pigment.Xinjiang was for centuries the central stretch of the Silk Road, and its domestic furniture answers to a tradition distinct from Han Chinese practice. The ornament is not figurative: it is built from lattices, interlace and stylised plant motifs, the same vocabulary that orders the tilework and plaster of Kashgar and Khotan.The case is solid fir with mortise-and-tenon joinery. Two panel doors occupy the centre and two drawers are aligned to one side. The pulls are hand-forged iron rings on rosettes. The stiles continue into stirrup feet and the back is closed with vertical boards.The carving covers doors, drawers, stiles and frieze. The repertoire combines diamond lattices with quatrefoils, lanceolate petals interlaced into flower compositions and friezes of vertical fluting. Pigment was applied over the relief in vermilion, emerald green, violet blue and ochre, with the mouldings outlined in violet. The colour does not fill: it underlines the carved edge.The pigment has lost body and reveals the wood beneath the carving, above all in the areas of contact. The top is bare and shows open grain and old repairs. The whole reads as a surface worn honestly, not restored.Its low, elongated proportion places it as a living-room cabinet, a storage console or a television base. In a restrained interior, the polychrome carving works as the single note of colour and asks for nothing beside it.

Dimensions: Length 204 cm – Width 40 cm – Height 68 cm. Style: Uyghur of Xinjiang. Materials and techniques: Fir wood; hand-forged iron hardware; mortise-and-tenon joinery; relief carving and pigment polychromy. Place of origin: China, Xinjiang. Period: Qing dynasty. Date of manufacture: Circa 1900. Condition: Good. Original carving and polychromy with pigment loss and wood exposed in the areas of contact. Wear consistent with age and use. See less