Chinese Root Wood Table

A thicket of tendrils, knots and hollows, holding itself upright by sheer stubbornness.

This root wood table is from Hebei Province, China, and dates to the early 20th century. It is zhu mu 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. Densely tangled natural form with thin tendrils trailing below and a flat top that is rough and cracked. The dark chocolate surface glints, with lighter reddish highlights along the ridges and many open pockets. It is 20 inches long, 18.5 deep and 31 high.

Knotted, brooding and unquestionably the life of the room.