Plateau supérieur d'une table basse

The rarest piece of the group of lacquered pieces kept today in the Cernuschi Museum is indisputably this table top decorated with alternating bands of red and black. The underside is reinforced with two crossbars. There is a small piece of wood still attached to one of the corners, probably the remnant of a leg. The presence of legs would suggest that this was a small ji-type table and not a table tray (an). The first known example of a lacquered wooden table dates back to the 5th century BC (tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, in Leigudun, Suixian county, Hubei). Tables from the Western Han period are well documented. At the Mawangdui site, an table trays were found by low ji tables. Both served to present the various vessels required for a meal, including lacquered wood cups and dishes.
The delicate red-brown decorations on the black bands feature small vermiculated motifs, clouds and birds with raised head. These motifs are similar to two themes found in a type of ware defined by Mr. Teng Rensheng (1992). The birds echo, in a more simplified manner, the phoenixes commonly found, according to Mr. Teng, on Chu kingdom funerary wares from the Warring States period. The foliate motifs, however, with wide square fronds and delicate vermiculate shoots, are comparable to analogous ornamentation on lacquerware found at Changsha.