A rare example of Peranakan devotional furniture, this eighteenth-century tabernacle brings together the ornamental language of Southeast Asia and the liturgical traditions of Catholic Christianity. Its richly carved, gilded decoration stands out against a deep red lacquer ground. Slender columns, openwork panels and curling foliage frame the central Eucharistic imagery; a pelican feeding its young crowns the composition.

The catalogue Las Artes del Galeón de Manila: Seda, laca y enconchado locates the work in the Malay Peninsula, in present-day Malaysia, and discusses it in the context of Luso-Asian Christianity. In centres such as Malacca, Chinese-Malay Catholic communities developed a distinctive material culture in which Chinese decorative traditions and European sacred forms were brought into dialogue.

Here the tabernacle’s Christian function is expressed through local materials, techniques and an exceptionally elaborate ornamental vocabulary. Its significance lies in this meeting of cultures: an uncommon witness to the ways religious objects were reimagined within the maritime networks linking Asia and the Iberian world.