This antique sideboard in solid pine, with original green paint and two flush doors, is a domestic piece from northwest China around 1930. It bears no maker’s mark and is described by typology and region.
Sideboards from Gansu, along the ancient Silk Road, kept the tradition of painting domestic furniture with popular earth pigments — greens, blues, ochres. The paint did more than decorate: it protected soft pine from the continental climate and brought colour to whitewashed homes.
The frame is built with blind mortise-and-tenon joinery. A light-bodied green paint was applied over the pine, today worn unevenly and revealing the warm wood at edges, corners and rub points. The two flush doors swing on dowel pivots and close with original leaf-shaped wrought-iron rings. The lower front carries a shaped panel.
The patina is exceptionally vivid: the original mint green covers every front with frank losses that bring back the reading of the wood below. This dual chromatic effect — old green over warm pine — is intentional and part of the piece’s historical value, not a defect. No invasive restoration.
It works as a colour-piece sideboard in an entryway, rustic-contemporary living room or open kitchen. Its palette — washed green over live wood — sits well with white walls, terracotta or glazed tile and interiors that accept saturated colour as an accent.
Details
- Materials and techniques: Solid pine wood; original green paint on wood; leaf-shaped wrought-iron fittings
- Place of origin: Gansu (China)
- Period: Republican period
- Date of manufacture: Circa 1930
- Dimensions: Length 139 cm – Depth 40 cm – Height 81 cm
- Condition: Good. Original patina and paint. Wear consistent with age. May show signs of use.
This piece is part of the curated collection of Amaru Antiques, Barcelona.
ONE OF A KIND PIECE
