Low Console Table in Pine, China, 1900

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This antique low console table in pine wood is a Chinese domestic table with a single-board top and round-section legs. … Read more This antique low console table in pine wood is a Chinese domestic table with a single-board top and round-section legs. It originates from northern China, from the Qing dynasty, where pine was worked with the adze and joined with mortise and tenon.Tables like this stood at the centre of the northern farmhouse: on them people kneaded, ate and settled the work of the day. They were not display furniture but daily tools, and their wear is the direct record of that use.The top is a single board of solid pine, live-edged and of uneven thickness, carried on shaped brackets. The four legs, turned in round section, splay slightly outward and are braced by two stretchers at different heights, a solution that gives rigidity without an apron.The surface has reached a deep, dark patina, with one wide open grain running the length of the top and black marks of use concentrated at the centre. The edges are rounded by handling. The wood reads honestly worn, with no repaint and no filler.Its height of 62 cm places it between console and side table: it works behind a sofa, in an entrance hall or as a light desk. The dark patina asks for a pale wall and suits wabi-sabi, rustic and contemporary interiors. See less