Low Table (kang zhuo) with Dragons in Clouds (1600s–1700s): Art, History and Details

Low Table (kang zhuo) with Dragons in Clouds (1600s–1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Originally, low tables were placed on a kang, a raised platform made of brick and heated by a fire underneath, which served as a bed and living space on cold winter days in northern China. During the daytime, these platforms could accommodate two sitters with a kang table placed between them. In the warmer south, kang tables were used on daybeds made of wood. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, furniture makers used rare tropical hardwood, such as huanghuali, known as rosewood.

Object facts

• Title: Low Table (kang zhuo) with Dragons in Clouds
• Date: 1600s–1700s
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368-1644) or Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: Rosewood (huanghuali) and metal
• Dimensions: Overall: 29 x 97.2 x 69.2 cm (11 7/16 x 38 1/4 x 27 1/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Ming Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.228

A detail from the museum

Note the curved legs, the elaborate openwork carving, and metal-fitted corners in the form of bats.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Handler, Sarah. Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
• Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.