Chinese Stool | Side Table

Orange and gray-green, with veins running every which way like a road map of somewhere ancient.

This stool or side table comes from Guizhou Province, China, and is Ruyuan stone. In China, collectors have long admired stones that look like distant mountains or weathered landscapes, and a polished boulder like this belongs to that tradition. The form is a broad, slightly bowed oval, flat on top and softly rounded below. Patches of rust orange, sage gray and ochre spread across the sides, laced with fine dark cracks and a few darker green spots. A gentle sheen covers the whole surface. It is 20.25 inches long, 12.75 deep and 14 high.

It took a very long time to get this comfortable.