9" x 4.5" Wooden carving from China

I already posted another carving from mainland China. I believe this one is older.

 

it's nicer,,,,,

 

It is after traditional Chinese house and interior decor panels.
The real ones usually have a red base coat and gilding, on old ones the gilding is worn. The wood on old ones is weathered and a dark colour, sometimes greyish dark wood.

 

It looks like there was a red base coat and maybe someone tried to clean it? How old would that make it?

 

It is very odd for the red base coat to leave a stain like that after removal.
But assuming it was once coated with a red paint, red paint is still used, so it is no indication of the age. The wood doesn't look very old to me.
It is nice quality though, lovely detail. So maybe you should focus on its beauty rather than its age.

 

This is antique. Probably made of camphor wood or nanmu (cedar). Typical Anhui school of wood carving. I will show you some examples of what this style looks like in restored/unrestored form: A TO Z: RESTORING CHINESE WOOD CARVINGS, WOODEN SCREENS AND CARVED ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS.

These are used in many different places from canopy beds to doors to window screens, so its difficult to pinpoint which of these this particular one was used for. They usually depict opera scenes or old stories. Its not uncommon for them to be repaired as well as figural scenes were often damaged during China's cultural revolution. You may wish to read up on this here: BURN, LOOT AND PILLAGE! DESTRUCTION OF ANTIQUES DURING CHINA’S CULTURAL REVOLUTION. Yours however look like the figures are undamaged.

As for the red, that's common. They are often stripped by the sellers on the China side, the residual red is what's left from the washing away the color.