Chinese Altar Table with 3 Drawers

Narrow console with upturned ends and a trio of drawers with ring pulls.

This altar table with 3 drawers is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the mid 19th century. It is lacquered camphor wood. 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. Tall, narrow table with an overhanging top and upturned flanges at each end. Three drawers with metal ring pulls span the front, and the legs are plain and square. The finish is warm and reddish. It is 54.5 inches long, 12 deep and 38 high.

Elegant legs, tidy drawers, perfect posture.