Chinese Lute-Form Bench, with Phoenix Motifs

A bird with a trailing tail swirls across a soft sandy block.

This lute-form bench, with phoenix motifs is from China. It is carved marble. 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. Rounded rectangular block with a pale, rough finish. A carved long-tailed bird with outspread wings fills the face, framed by scrolling cloud forms in low relief. A smaller coiled motif sits near the lower left. It is 16 inches long, 7 deep and 10 high.

Elegant feathers, patiently coaxed from a heavy block.