Chinese Table with Stone Inset Top

Square table with a sunken panel top and brackets that curl like quiet eyebrows.

This table with stone inset top is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the mid 19th century. It is elm wood & stone. Tibetans were traditionally semi-nomadic and owned few personal furnishings, so most Tibetan furniture stood in monasteries, and some of it was carted over the Himalayas to India as monasteries were destroyed. Raised border surrounds a recessed dark center on the top. Under the shallow apron, rounded spandrels join the corners to sturdy legs that end in slightly flared hoof feet. Color runs from amber to chestnut, with darker spotting. It is 22 inches long, 22 deep and 20.5 high.

Even its repairs look like they were done with a straight face.