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Hover to zoom Aged Moorish Door, a double door made from carved wood in Fez, Morocco, with an arched lower half and a top that opens

Morocco, North Africa

Aged Moorish Door

Name: Aged Moorish Door
Brand: York's Shona Gallery
SKU: D010
Price: 14995.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Piece #D010 · Year Made: 1952

$14,995

Shipping individually quoted

Origin

Morocco, North Africa

Period

Mid-20th Century

Medium

Hand Carved Wood

Length

12'

Width

5'

Details & Materials

The Aged Moorish Door is a door about choice. Shut, it is a wall of carved floral and geometric pattern in the Arabesque style. Opened at the top alone, it lets in light and air while the bottom half stays closed, the old Dutch door design that once kept animals out of farmhouses and children safely inside.

It was hand crafted in Fez from wood planks and carries its age in a patina no new piece can imitate. Both faces are carved, so it can hang as a bold wall piece or work as a functioning door. Patterns like these have decorated the ceilings and wall panels of mosques and palaces across North Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean for centuries.

Condition: Excellent, not previously owned, undamaged
Sourcing: Fair Trade
Certificate of Authenticity: Available Upon Request
Provenance Report: Available Upon Request

Shipping

Buy now and leave the shipping to us. At checkout you pay for the piece plus a shipping deposit. We then plan the packing for your piece and email you the remaining shipping balance. This applies to both domestic and international orders. Every shipment is tracked, and most deliveries need a signature.

Domestic: 5-8 business days
International: 10-14 business days
White-glove delivery available on request

Care & Placement

Contact the gallery for instructions

Authenticity guaranteed, every piece verified

Packed and shipped by our team, insured and tracked

New York City gallery, est. 1983

Origin

Morocco

North Africa

"When I was first exposed to African art, I felt a deep connection to it. It is hard to explain. It resonates with me spiritually."

Michael, Founder

York's Shona Gallery was the first in New York City to bring African sculpture to American collectors. Every piece in our collection is acquired directly, ensuring authenticity and fair exchange with the artists and communities who create them.

Origin

Morocco, North Africa

Tradition

Decor

Medium

Hand Carved Wood

The Tradition

African Wood Carving

Wood has long been the great sculptural material of Africa. Carved from a single trunk, each piece carries the grain of the living tree and the marks of the hands and tools that shaped it.

Across the continent, carving was never only decoration. Figures, stools, doors, ladders and headrests were made to be used, and each was carved with the care given to a work of art. Every people developed its own language of form, so a piece can often be traced to the people who made it by its shape and pattern alone.

The skill passes from one generation to the next, usually from a parent or an older relative. Today the same hands carve animals, furniture and decorative pieces alongside traditional forms, working dense hardwoods such as ebony, teak, jarrah and cherry.

The work is done by hand, most of it with an adze, a short axe with the blade set sideways, and finished with knives and chisels. Most pieces are cut from one block with no joins, so the form follows the shape of the tree. Some woods are also burned, which darkens the surface and brings out the grain, and every piece deepens in tone with handling and age.

Wood: Ebony, teak, jarrah, cherry and local hardwoods
Made: By hand, from a single block
Tools: Adze, knife and chisel
Made for: Ceremony, decoration and storytelling

A carver working with a mallet and chisel, a carved wooden door behind him

Hands carving a small wooden figure with a knife

A carver cutting a pattern into a wooden panel with a chisel

The woods we carry

Ebony wood

A dense, heavy wood that grows slowly, with an almost black heart and pale outer wood from the same log that carvers often use together in one piece

Teak wood

A strong hardwood of warm golden brown, resistant to weather, that deepens in tone with age

Jarrah wood

A very dense, deep red hardwood that darkens to a rich reddish brown as it ages

Cherry wood

A wood with a fine, even grain and a warm reddish tone that grows richer the longer it is exposed to light

View all wood sculpture

Aged Moorish Door

Morocco

Surfaces

Pedestal

Styled with and outdoors

Rooms

African Wood Carving

Aged Moorish Door

Morocco

Surfaces

Pedestal

Styled with and outdoors

Rooms

African Wood Carving

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