This altar sideboard was thought to have been used either for the practice of Taoist deity worship or ancestor worship - the traditional religion of the Peranakan Chinese. The family that owned the sideboard adapted it when they subsequently converted to Roman Catholicism. The result is a piece of furniture made of gilt teak with Daoist carvings of the three stellar gods, Hock (God of Happiness), Lock (God of Wealth) and Siew (God of Longevity), auspicious Chinese carvings of the dragon, 'qilin' (mythical Chinese creature with the body of a deer, hooves of a horse and an elongated horn) and phoenix, and a central Catholic devotional image of the Holy Family.
