Date: Qing (AD 1644-1911)
Dimensions: Length 159 cm, Width 78 cm, Height 222 cm
Material: Zitan wood, copper

• Object Type：
  • OTHERS
• Location：
  • Chinese Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery
• Tag：
  • cabinet cloud dragon qing zitan wood

This kind of cabinet is a large piece of palace furniture, found usually in pairs. Most of the cabinets are made from a large piece of high grade rosewood, except for the shelf board, the frame inside and the drawers, where mesuaferrea is applied. This furniture is of large volume, weighing hundreds of Jin (half kilo). The material used for this cabinet is stout and thick, with a dense grain of cattle hair. The doors are embossed with two groups of impressive dragon designs, all of which have five claws. The doors and the chamber board are respectively carved with ‘a black dragon admonishing its son’ and ‘two dragons playing with a pearl’. The latch between the cabinet door leaves is removable, with the tenons on the top and sliding chute at the bottom, which allows the door leaves to be disassembled and assembled at disposal when large clothing need putting in or taking out of the cabinet. On the top of the cabinet there are some mortises, which indicate that these cabinets were paired with a top tank, which is long missing. The cabinet is made of large wood with spacious structure and is the only example of a square-cornered cabinet seen in the world.