Antique Two-door Linen Cabinet - Huali & Cedar Wood

Origin: Zhejiang

Period: 20th A D

Timber: Cedar/Huali

Size: 103cm x53cm x175cm

Details: Two contrasting woods: cedar and huali; huali is a very hard timber

This cabinet dates from the early 20th century and was made in the Zhejiang region of China. It is crafted from two contrast woods; huali and cedar. The cabinet features decorative bone inlay above the doors. 

The doors of the cabinet can be easily removed. Fitted in the back of each door panel, using dovetail joints, are transverse braces. These fully support and secure the panel in the door frame members. The door panels are thick, but are bevelled into the frame, to further strengthen the doors frame. Inside the cabinet are two drawers which would have been used to store small items. The top of the drawers serve as an additional shelf, to complement the other shelf in the base of the cabinet. 

The brass handles are a combination of a vase motif and a cloud symbol. The word for vase is pronounced ‘ping’, the same as the word for peace. The vase therefore represents the wish for a peaceful life. The Chinese for cloud is pronounced “yun” and is homonymous with the word for luck. 

The earliest forms of the cabinet were boxes that in turn developed into larger chests. The basic form of the chest appears to have continued until the advent of the chair and a more sophisticated mode of living, perhaps around the Song dynasty (1127A.D. - 1279A.D.). The addition of doors to the chest and then feet reflected a different way of storing articles. By the Ming dynasty (1368A.D. – 1644A.D.) cabinets appeared in different forms and a variety of sizes and designs. Some had specific uses, such as book cabinets, kitchen cabinets and linen cabinets, but in the main cabinets performed a flexible role. From these humble beginnings, cabinets evolved to become works of art as well as being functional items representing lifestyles, beliefs and tastes of the time. One feature of Chinese cabinets is that many of them have doors and centre stiles that could be easily removed. This design served two purposes. Firstly, in a society that folded its clothes rather than hung them, removing the centre stile meant long items such as robes could be neatly stored across the length of the shelf. Secondly, being able to remove doors also allowed the user to store large items and to then close the doors around them.