Chinese Stool | Side Table

Black stone shot with gold veins and splashes of coral, polished until it gleams.

This stool or side table comes from Guizhou Province, China, and is Ruyuan stone. Chinese scholars and garden makers have long prized stones left in their natural shapes, valuing them for color, veining and the sense of a landscape held in miniature. This one is a low, rounded boulder with a flat, polished top. One side is near black, crazed with fine golden lines and dotted with patches of coral red and pale jade green. The other side warms to a crackled orange and ochre. It is 22.5 inches long, 11 deep and 12 high.

A seat for someone who has never once been accused of minimalism.