18TH-19TH CENTURY

The present cabinet is constructed from zitan, a precious hardwood that was highly valued during the Qing dynasty and in present day China. Known for its signature fine-grained texture of purplish-black tone, zitan trees are slow growing and require hundreds of years to fully mature into the condition suitable for making furniture. Although local sources of zitan exist in southern China, much of the material was imported from Indonesia. As a valuable commodity, its use was carefully monitored and recorded at the Imperial workshops.
A zitan cabinet of similar proportion but carved with a design of the Eight Daoist emblems (anbaxian) amidst clouds on the doors above a panel carved with bats over raging waves amidst clouds is in Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Gu gong bo wu yuan cang Ming Qing gong ting jia ju da guan (Furniture of the Ming and Qing Palaces as Collected in the Palace Museum), Beijing, 2006, p.304, pl. 344. Another pair of zitan cabinets of similar proportion supporting hat chests, carved with scenes from the Gengzhi tu (Pictures of Tilling and Weaving), dated mid to late Qing dynasty, also in the Palace Musuem, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum, vol. 15, Shelving, Cabinet, Coffer, Chest, Beijing, 2015, p. 616 -623, no. 79.