Chinese Stone Altar Bench

Somebody carved spiral ankles on a stone bench. It was the right call.

This stone altar bench comes from China and dates to the 17th century. Altar tables held offerings, incense and ancestral tablets in Chinese homes and temples, and their forms often passed into stone as well as wood. The top is a long, plain slab, its edge softened and stepped above a recessed waist. Two shaped supports curve in at the middle and finish in tight spirals at the foot. The pale stone carries buff and gray streaks, and the supports look rougher than the top. Fifty-six inches long and 22 high.

It will outlast the discussion about where to put it.