About This Work

Ornamental detail (fragment) from an Antique Chinese carved beam, on a Valsain Pine plinth.

This set of Antique Architectural Fittings is the ornamental ensemble of a Traditional Chinese Courtyard House (Si He Yuan) originally located 20 km from the urban center of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. Given the difficulty of establishing the history of the property prior to 1949, the Bureau of Cultural Relics and Antiques of Yunnan Province determined that according to the location, style, and great artistic value of its carvings it may have belonged to a high-ranking official and landlord of the late Qing Dynasty, (ca.1870).