Chinese Wood Altar Table

A long low table in dark worn lacquer, with a spindly railing of little posts under the top.

This altar table is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 18th century. It is lacquered elm wood. Once China slowly opened to visiting diplomats and businessmen, a trickle of antique furniture leaving the country became a flood that lasted through the 1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Long rectangular top with a dark, rubbed surface and pale scuffs at the edges. Square legs carry a thin stretcher rail, with short vertical spindles filling the gap beneath the top. The feet turn out in small hooked ends. It is 70 inches long, 19 deep and 33.5 high.

Plain on top, fussy underneath, and sure of itself either way.