Date: Ming (AD 1368-1644)
Dimensions: Length 108 cm, Width 69 cm, Height 29.5 cm
Material: Huanghuali wood
Donated by the Chuang family

• Object Type：
  • OTHERS
• Tag：
  • table ming huanghuali wood

The utilization of low tables can be traced back to ancient life style when people sat on the ground. In northern China it is very cold in winter. Most of the houses are built with a high platform of bricks hollow inside, known as a Kang. Fire can be made inside to keep warm. The low table placed on the Kang is called a Kang table (bed table). 

This piece of furniture is girded with three curved legs suitable for carving elegant decoration, forming a sharp contrast with the straight-feet no-girding type bed table. This type of shape is relatively special and rare. The table is made of an aligned apron; namely the apron is not connected with the table legs at 45°, but in vertical flush joints, so the detailed carved double twisted grass and interlaced hydra design can be presented completely. The apron is the wood boards on the sides beneath the table top. There is the teaching in Records of Lu Ban (Lu Ban Jing) in the Ming dynasty: “The carving decoration of the four-tooth square table is often seen in the shoulder parts of the legs.” The animal patterns on the shoulder parts of the legs of this bed table have ‘flying hair, glaring eyes and as if breathing from its nose’. The apron is decorated with two dragons facing each other, relaxed but powerful and lifelike.