Chinese Mother of Pearl Display Cabinet
You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.
Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item
When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.
- Rosewood - A dense timber that varies in shade to very light brown to almost black. When rosewood is cut and sanded the colour of the timber will turn black, and after polishing and exposure to daylight, the surface will gradually lighten over time to light brown with black streaks.
The name comes from the odour emanating from the timber when it is planed, sanded or cut.
Rosewood was very popular for use in Victorian furniture in the second half of the 19th century, and at that time most of the rosewood was imported from Brazil. However it also grows in India and Indonesia.
It is used in the sold for chairs and table legs, but for carcase furniture such as side cabinets and bookcases, and for table tops it is always used as a veneer. - Mother-Of-Pearl - Mother-of-pearl, technical name "nacre", is the inner layer of a sea shell. The iridescent colours and strength of this material were widely used in the nineteenth century as an inlay in jewellery, furniture, (especially papier mache furniture) and musical instruments.
In the early 1900s it was used to make pearl buttons. Mother-of-pearl is a soft material that is easily cut or engraved.
Nowadays it is a by-product of the oyster, freshwater pearl mussel and abalone industries.
This item has been included into following indexes:
- Chinese furniture, type or function
Visually similar items
A vintage Japanese hongmu small proportion display cabinet, the four open shelf sections at various heights, two doors and a single drawer to the base and a sliding door cupboard to the upper section, rounded plain supports, panelled sides, pierced lower g
A Japanese parquetry inlaid shodana, Meiji Period, 19th century
A ship's surgeon's kit, including a canteen of surgical Instruments in original velvet-lined leather box, a brass syringe in original case, and a burr walnut gentleman's drop down travelling writing desk (3)
A pair of hardwood three-shelf bookcases, Jiage, 19th/20th century, (2), each with concave sided square members of the frame supporting three shelves, with a lattice arrangement of horizontal and vertical struts below a frieze of double ring braces, the up