- Title
- Cabinet with Dragons and Phoenixes
- Date Made
- 19th century
- Medium
- Wood with mineral pigments, gesso, and brass powder; brass fittings
- Dimensions
- 41 1/2 × 49 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (105.41 × 125.73 × 39.37 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2010.80.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The front of this elaborate cabinet has a "Dutch gold" (ragdül) finish made of brass powder over finely detailed gesso (kyungbur) designs of a pair of dragons clutching precious jewels flanked by a pair of confronting phoenixes. The venerated creatures are portrayed in lobed cartouches in four vertical inset panels with a border of linear shell patterns and quatrefoils. Beneath them are three horizontal panels with confronting deer and a mountainous landscape. Under the plain topboard with scrolling lotus edge is a double border with a variant of the Greek key pattern over a row of lotus petals. The bottom border is a painted board with cloud forms that may be a replacement. See David Kamansky, ed., Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum and Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004), p. 297, no. 118.
