A RARE PAIR OF CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER MINIATURE KANG CABINETS

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A RARE PAIR OF CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER MINIATURE KANG CABINETS
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Each rectangular cabinet with a separate hatchest, finely carved on the four doors with figures in balustraded gardens or in landscape settings with trees providing shade and rockwork on the banks of a lake, all within key-fret borders, the gilt-bronze hinges chased with foliate designs, the lower section with a long drawer carved with lotus and angular scrollwork above the broad apron carved with a dense lotus scroll, the interior of the lower cabinet set with another pair of drawers, the top and sides with a diamond diaper pattern
25 in. (63.5 cm.) overall height (2)

Lot Essay

Miniature cabinets of this type were made for display on a kang which served as a seat in the day and a bed at night. These cabinets are more often carved with dragons; figures in landscape are a rarer motif. Cf. a similar cabinet carved with landscape scenes in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Special Exhibition of Palace Lacquer Objects, 1981, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 65; and another sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20 May 1986, lot 181.

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