Chinese Stool with Rattan Inset Seat

Knobbly little table with a woven inset top and a weathered, gnarled look.

This stool with rattan inset seat is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 19th century. It is lacquered elm wood & rattan. 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. Low square table with a thick rounded frame in pale, heavily weathered wood, enclosing a woven cane panel. Splayed legs with a slim stretcher and small curved brackets support it. Surface is rough and cracked. It is 19 inches long, 15 deep and 12 high.

Rough to the touch and perfectly content.