I have a handmade and hand carved asian jewlery chest that contains three drawers. The chest is obviously an antique and has handmade dove tail joints. All beveled areas are beveled by hand. On the top of the chest, there is a crest or shield that stands up and is propped up by a fold up brace. The entire crest/shield is hand carved. You can see the joint work in the pictures. There appears to be different kinds of wood used for this piece. There are also little animal figures on the corners of the front posts. The chest has a deep red hue to it and it is NOT a traditional laquer. The finish on this appears to be more of a plant dye than anything else. I have been doing antiques for years and have NEVER seen a handmade piece like this one, so any help would be appreciated.
Re: Handmade/Handcarved Asian Jewelry Chest with stand up Crest
I could be way off, and I am NO expert.. yet, I have an obsession with Asian/oriental cultures, history and arts.. and though this looks very Asian.. the knobs do not look asian to me.. and, there was an era, in Brittish, American, history, perhaps colonial/victorian, or other.. that had hand carved wooden pieces with this similarity of carving.. as well, the dye/coloring of the work and being made of more than one type of wood. I had seen pieces like this floating around since I was a kid.. in the 70's.. it could be from any era in the 1900's or even 1800's.. yet thinking more in the 1900's.. those knobs were seen on many wooden hand carved pieces that were American and or Brittish. I remember pieces like this since as far back as I have memories.. I loved these as well. Anything handcarved and intricately detailed, from a very young age, I've always had an appreciation of the arts. Just never pursued anything with them in a "professional" manner. As I said, I could be way off.. however, I think my intuition could also be spot on.. I hope that you will find out about it. I am intrigued and now curious myself as to what this really is and where it originates from.. Good luck to you in finding out!