Asian Antique Furniture

Shanxi, a farmhouse kang, an elm cabinet gone red with a century of lacquer and wear. Antique furniture from Asia comes from China, Tibet, Japan, India and Southeast Asia. Chinese furniture falls into two families: classical pieces in huanghuali and zitan made for the educated elite, and vernacular furniture in northern elm and other local woods, lacquered and used in ordinary homes. Altar tables, kang tables, painted wedding cabinets and round-corner cabinets from Shanxi carry old lacquer, wear and repairs honestly. Old Shanxi furniture, once plentiful, has grown scarce.

Tibetan painted chests and torgam altar cabinets glow with mineral pigment and Buddhist iconography; Japanese tansu chests wear iron hardware on keyaki and paulownia; Indian pieces include carved teak and silver-clad furniture from Kolkata. Hand-rubbed lacquer and elm grain warm a modern room. A Shanxi altar table under a large painting, a Tibetan chest at the end of a bed. Age that cannot be faked.