Chinese Low Table with Stone Inset Top

Heavy legs, a broad frame and a slab of stone in the middle, all without a single flourish.

This low table with stone inset top comes from Hebei Province, China, and is contemporary, in elm wood and stone. Stone-topped tables are an old Chinese solution for anything hot, wet or heavy, and the clean, unadorned style has long suited scholars' studios as well as modern rooms. The top holds a mottled gray-brown stone panel within a wide frame of deep reddish elm with a soft sheen. Four thick square legs drop straight down from the corners, joined with no apron to speak of. It is 36 inches square and 16 high.

Plain spoken, in the best tradition of furniture.