Chinese Altar Table with 2 Drawers, Brick Top & Serpent Motif

Coiling carved beasts hold up this dark table like two very committed bookends.

This altar table with 2 drawers, brick top & serpent motif is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the early 18th century. It is lacquered elm wood. 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. Dark, heavy table with a thick top and two small drawers at the center. Deeply carved coiling creatures cover the chunky end supports, ending in swirling scroll feet. A shallow scalloped apron runs between them. It is 62.5 inches long, 22.75 deep and 39 high.

Two drawers for tidiness, two carved giants for drama.