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Hello. I recently bought this small but nice table and would like to have some thoughts about the wood it is made from. I am sorry some of the patina of the wood is marked from use. Also it appears that it was lacquered red which has work off on the top, but is evident from the sides and the legs. The top has only been treated with a colourless beeswax. Thanks for your ideas on the wood.

Additional photographs. Also, just noticed it had a small inscription on the bottom (under the chalk marks) painted in black. Can someone read it for me. Thank you!

These photos are just not clear enough. From the wear on the feet, I would say this is an old piece. You can also see some joinery repairs as well. It looks like they have brushed a coat of Chinese shellac over it, with some stain in the shellac which is what causes that "rubbed away red lacquer effect" you mentioned. It feels very "Gansu province" to me.. My guess on the wood would be "walnut" but again, I find it really hard to identify woods from photos.

The writing says "Cai li yan - fang li da" - no idea what this means...

Hello,

Quite a riddle to identify this wood on pictures. The treatments the table seems to have endured (time, hand-made - ?) makes this task a trick to me.
I would say either hetao(mu) -i.e. walnut, as Roger proposed-, or eventually nan(mu) -i.e. Chinese cedar.

The table looks good to me in general (proportions, design), but the cumulative layers of treatments make it difficult to put an age. The joints seems fine and there is obvious shrinkage on the top panel, in the right direction.

Some more would help attribute an eventual dating.

I like this table quite much myself and would have requested more pics to eventually buy it ..+ its price of course :)

Cheers,

Phil

Should be walnut or pearwood (which looks a lot like walnut). Yes, there are some parts that do look a little like nanmu but the rest of the grain, divits etc all seem very "walnut like." There is also a finishing style many workshops use with walnut stuff and this piece looks finished in very much the same manner.

The heaviness of the top frame, proportions, the tight fit of the bar below all feel very "Gansu like to me."

Attached is an image from a shop in the states of a similar table also from Gansu (I actually know the guy from Gansu who brings walnut furniture to Beijing which was eventually to these guys).

Any writing on the undersides of Chinese furniture is generally a good thing - rarely see that anywhere.



URL Title :Walnut furniture warehouse images

it's a nice old thing that. no need to write it off that easily. Looks Ming to me. The wood, certainly of the panel frame is 'Blue Japanese Oak'. Very distinctive pattern, lots of tiny little eyes woven into the grain it looks like. Cyclobalanopsis glauca. It grows from Japan to India & is very hard to work, so you get these weird chunks taken out by planing on the tangenital section, but it's very dense & lasts a very very long time. More common in early pieces than later. A number of tomb excavations are made of this wood, so naturally these are in museums. Yours not this very very early category, but could certainly be 16th / 17thC

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