Antique Chinese carved fir low sideboard, with a sequence of six door panels and two interspersed drawers, from Gansu province and dated around 1930. An exceptional piece sitting between a provincial palatial sideboard and a family altar table, representative of northwestern Chinese furniture in its most imposing and decorated version.
In traditional Gansu houses, long sideboards were part of the main hall furniture, where they stored everyday objects and bore the items of honour on their top. This piece, more than two and a half metres long, takes the logic of the horizontal sideboard to its limit: a rhythmic sequence of carved panels orders the entire surface and turns the piece into a nearly architectural object, comparable to a low façade.
It is built in solid fir with a front organised in a sequence of frame-and-panel sections — all carved in low relief with diamond fretwork, floral motifs and geometric bands — separated by two central drawers, all with their original forged-iron drop-ring pulls on circular plates. The upper frieze and lower apron continue the decorative repertoire, and the feet on a solid plinth visually anchor the entire silhouette.
The patina retains the noble tone of aged fir: the wood shows a warm honey-brown colour, with legible grain and a soft matte sheen. The carvings keep their full definition and the hardware retains its stable oxidation. The piece keeps its original paintwork and patina, with the natural wear of time, which enriches its reading as an object of trade.
For its exceptional scale and densely carved surface, it fits in large interiors — galleries, large-format salons, industrial lofts, Mediterranean houses with very long walls — where it works as a principal salon sideboard, contemporary altar table, low cabinet beneath a wall-mounted screen or lead piece in an entrance hall. Its almost three-metre horizontal reading carries a large wall on its own.
Details
- Dimensions: Width: 261 cm Depth: 45 cm Height: 68 cm
- Style: Provincial Chinese furniture, Gansu tradition
- Materials and techniques: Solid fir; sequence of frame-and-panel sections interspersed with drawers; dense low-relief carving; original forged-iron hardware
- Place of origin: Gansu, China
- Period: First third of the twentieth century
- Date of manufacture: Circa 1930
- Condition / Notes: Good. Original patina and paintwork. May show marks and traces of use
This piece is part of the collection of Amaru Antiques, Barcelona.
ONE OF A KIND PIECE
