Painted Festival Trunk

Trunks and storage chests were the most ubiquitous form of household storage throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. Used to store clothes, linens, kitchen utensils, and other miscellaneous items, trunks were found in every room in the home and were often stacked on top of one another.

This festive chest dates to the early 19th century and has been embellished with black lacquer and detailed hand-painted decoration in a traditional folk style. The front of the trunk is painted with a scene of Communist propaganda, depicting three young soldiers beneath a banner that reads “Welcome New Comrades.” The men are surrounded by lotus blossoms and painted text telling the story of a patriotic young comrade defending the motherland as a military engineer. Likely repainted in the 1960s or 70s, the provincial chest is a curious example of mid-century attempts to integrate Communist philosophies into more traditional ways of being. The scene is enclosed within a border of crashing waves and a frame of flowers, offering fruits, and eternal knots. The other exterior sides are finished with a layer of black lacquer, now well-worn from years of use and travel. Inside, the trunk has been painted a bright turquoise to match the green palette of the trunk's painted front.