QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Altar tables of this type are known as qiaotou’an as they are distinguished by their elegant everted table-top ends and openwork panels joining the legs. The late Ming style-maker Wen Zhenheng also termed it bizhuo, or ‘wall table,’ as they were often found placed against a wall in the main hall of a formal setting, to display works of art or to hold offerings, as can be seen in an illustration of the popular Ming dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) (fig. 1).

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