Chinese Stool | Side Table

A wave of pale gray breaks across the dark green top and spills down one side.

This stool or side table is from Guizhou Province, China, in stone. Polished river stones and boulders have been used as seats in Chinese gardens for centuries, prized because no two are alike. Here the form is a broad drum, slightly wider at the top, with an oval surface. The stone is deep slate green, crossed by a band of crinkled white and gray layers that twist like breaking surf. On the side, the same pale veins rise in rippling vertical streaks. A soft sheen covers it. It is 18 inches long, 14 deep and 16 high.

Somewhere in there is a seascape, and it is staying put.