Sunburst Carved Two Door Cabinet in Teak

3 different hands go into a cabinet like this and in our workshop they are 3 different men, the same way it was in our grandfather's time. One carves. One paints. One does the feet. The cabinet is not finished until all 3 have had their turn on it and that is the order it has always gone in.

3 Hands On 1 Cabinet

The Carver

He takes the teak door panels first, because the doors carry the most work. The vine is drawn on from a pattern that has been in the family longer than the man drawing it, a single stem climbing from the bottom corner with leaves coming off it and flower buds at the ends and then he cuts the ground away around it so the stem and the leaves stand up from the panel. Teak is the wood for this because it holds a fine edge, a leaf tip carved in teak stays sharp for 50 years where a softer wood would round off. The same man does the sunburst at the crown of the arch, the foliage on the apron and the running border down the sides, all with the same chisels.

The Painter

The rangsaaz comes after the carver has finished and the panel has been sanded. He lays the red first, geru mixed the old way, over the whole ground of the panel. Then the gold goes on the vine, only the vine, by brush, following the carving. Then the green on every leaf. Then he rubs some of it back off again with a cloth and fine sand so the colours sit down into the carving and the wood shows at the high points and the cabinet looks like it has been standing in a house for a lifetime already. A new one from us and an old one from a haveli look the same at 10 feet.

The Feet

Ball and claw is a shape that came to India on the ships and the carvers here kept it. Each foot is a bird's claw gripping a ball, cut from the leg block in one piece and the ball is painted red the way it always was here. 4 of them hold the whole weight of the cabinet.

The inside is 3 plain teak shelves, for everything a family needs to keep behind a door.

• Solid teak, hand carved, hand painted
• Arched top with a carved sunburst at the crown
• 2 doors with carved vine panels in red, gold and green
• 3 shelves inside
• Ball and claw feet, red balls
• Iron ring pulls