Focus on Medicine Chests

19^th C. small Elmwood medicine chest, C. 1880, origin: Shanxi. Size 35 x 23 x 30 high

Medicine chests represent a unique and interesting category of antique Chinese furniture. These pieces were used throughout China by physicians who were mostly trained in “traditional” Chinese medicine. This entailed the use of numerous herbs and mixtures totally unfamiliar to Western practitioners.

In their original state, all of these medicine chests would have labels pasted on the outside of the drawers indicating the contents of that drawer or set of drawers. Most of the drawers are divided into small spaces to hold the various herbs. These labels are often quite graphically interesting and add to the beauty of the individual piece.

Although we most often maintain as much of the original state of our furniture as possible, we have just started asking our China warehouse to remove the dividers in the drawers of these pieces so that they can actually be used in contemporary fashion.

Medicine cabinets come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. They make wonderful conversation pieces and can be integrated in any style of design