Chinese Low Table with Stone Inset Top

Lacquered red with a slab of green stone in the middle, and legs that curve like a horse's hooves.

This low table with stone inset top comes from Shanxi Province, China, and is contemporary, in lacquered elm wood and stone. The curved, inward-turning feet are a classic Chinese furniture form, often called horse-hoof legs, generally traced back to the Ming dynasty. A square panel of mossy green stone is set within a broad red lacquer frame. The deep apron flows straight into four sturdy legs that bow out and turn in at the feet. Small dark flecks speckle the red finish. It is 31 inches square and 18 high.

Red and green, and somehow not festive in the least. Just handsome.