Cabinet, One of Pair
Asian Art
On View: Asian Galleries, Southwest Lobby, 2nd floor
Chinese domestic furniture designed for the private quarters of an upper-class home is often characterized by the elegant simplicity of its design and the beauty that comes from the natural woods. These two massive Cabinets for clothing and household goods have interior shelves and are surmounted by so-called hat cupboards. They are constructed principally of Chinese camphorwood, a fragrant wood that helped repel insects. The mortise and tenon joinery-typically fine Chinese furniture is assembled without the use of nails is visible at the corners where the ends of the through-tenons appear on the sides of the cabinets. The austere form of the cabinets is set off by a band of low-relief design carved along the bottom aprons of the Cabinets.
MEDIUM
Zhangmu (Camphorwood)
DATES
ca. 1600
DYNASTY
Ming Dynasty
PERIOD
Ming Dynasty
DIMENSIONS
clothes section: 106 1/8 in. (269.6 cm)
hat section: 71 x 56 1/4 x 23 7/8 in. (180.3 x 142.9 x 60.6 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
82.174.2
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Feinberg and Dr. and Mrs. Robert Feinberg
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Pair of Camphorwood cabinets. Clothes cupboards with hat cupboards above, in two sections. Standard mitered, mortised and tenoned, tongue and groove, floating panel construction. Doors have flush panels, and surface mounted hinges which are rectangular with slight butterflied corners. Doors are removable. Large surface mounted Escutcheons.
Each clothes cupboard is fitted with two shelves on the inside, covering a storage compartment below. The aprons below are carved with a dragon design. Hardware is original.
Condition: Very good. Some old repairs. Restained.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Asian Galleries, Southwest Lobby, 2nd floor
CAPTION
Cabinet, One of Pair, ca. 1600. Zhangmu (Camphorwood), clothes section: 106 1/8 in. (269.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Feinberg and Dr. and Mrs. Robert Feinberg, 82.174.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 82.174.1_82.174.2_bw.jpg)
IMAGE
group, 82.174.1_82.174.2_bw.jpg.
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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