Chinese Low Table with Stone Inset Top

Four bundled legs, one slab of stone, and no interest in standing tall.

This low table with a stone inset top comes from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the 20th century, made of elm wood and stone. Low tables are closely tied to northern China, where families traditionally lived, ate and worked on the raised, heated platform called a kang. A gray-green stone panel sits inside the wooden frame. Paired rounded moldings run below the top and again lower down, linked by short uprights. The grooved legs look like bundled rods. It is 50 inches long, 26 deep and 16 high.

Low furniture. High standards.