Rare Tibetan Hand Painted Wood Box Trunk-Tiger Design

Along with some tables, the covered storage boxes are among the earliest examples of surviving Tibetan furniture. Many date from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By the nineteenth century they were being supplanted by the cabinet, which provided much easier access to its contents. These storage boxes compare in shape and dimensions to the six-board chest of the West. (To avoid confusion between storage boxes and cabinets, we have tried to avoid using the word chest for either). Some of these boxes were painted directly on the raw wood. Others were covered with cloth before being painted, and a few were covered with leather before paint was applied. Often gesso was used to produce raised decorations. Other boxes were finished with natural or dyed leather, sometimes with decorative panels of brocade or colorful fur. In most cases arrow-tipped iron or brass corner and side brackets were nailed to the box, both to reinforce the sides and to provide an additional decorative element. The tops were usually secured with iron ring hinges.