Antique painted low sideboard in pine wood, Chinese provincial furniture with vermilion lacquer originating from Gansu and dated circa 1930. Originates from Gansu, in northwestern China, from the early 20th century, where local pine was worked using mortise-and-tenon joinery without nails, and low sideboards were lacquered in vermilion with painted panels on the doors.
In the Hexi corridor, long low sideboards lacquered in vermilion served a dual decorative and symbolic function: red, the colour of good fortune, dressed the main room and accompanied ritual moments. When carrying painted panels with flowers or auspicious motifs, those painted panels acted as small domestic paintings integrated into the front of the piece.
Built in solid pine using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, without nails. The case articulates an open central niche and two small lateral doors with iron latch-style pulls. The sides are resolved as solid lateral plates, without exposed legs. The front retains the original vermilion lacquer and vestiges of painted decoration on the door panels.
The two lateral doors retain on their painted panels vestiges of floral motifs in dark tones over the vermilion ground: small compositions of stylised flowers, today heavily worn by time. Flowers, in the Chinese decorative repertoire, convey wishes for prosperity and domestic harmony. The painting is barely legible, which lends the piece an elegiac and discreet character proper to rural furniture preserved without restoration.
The patina retains the original vermilion with a matte sheen and an irregular surface. The lacquer shows broad losses, abrasions exposing the wood beneath, and the craquelure characteristic of hundred-year-old finishes. Wear is uniform and honest: it documents the passage of time without disguise. The structure remains solid.
It fits naturally in wabi-sabi, minimalist with a chromatic accent or contemporary rustic interiors. It works as a low TV sideboard, a bench-sideboard in an entrance or a horizontal console facing a long sofa. The worn vermilion lacquer gives it a singular chromatic presence within sober spaces.
Details
- Dimensions: Length 150 cm – Width 19 cm – Height 22 cm
- Style: Painted Chinese northwestern provincial furniture
- Materials and techniques: Solid pine, vermilion lacquer, pigments over lacquer; mortise-and-tenon joinery without nails, two lateral doors with painted panels, open central niche, iron latch-style pulls
- Place of origin: Gansu, China
- Period: Early Republic of China (circa 1930)
- Date of manufacture: Circa 1930
- Condition / Notes: Sound structure. Original vermilion lacquer with broad losses and craquelure. Heavily worn painted decoration on the doors. Wear consistent with age and use.
This piece is part of the collection of Amaru Antiques, Barcelona.
ONE OF A KIND PIECE
