The desktop is narrow but exquisite, usually put in literati’s studies or rooms for musical instruments in Ming Dynasty. Generally the size of such desks can be flexible, due to the size of the room where it is placed or how much available timber, and this is also why this type of small furniture is diversified without any standard format. This desk is an example.
This desk has a solid board top with small everted flanges and aprons of cloud-head design; the cross section of the legs is rectangular, square inside and arc outside; there is a yang line in the middle, usually called “one-incense-stick beading”. The continuous floor stretchers below are square. There are double supports in the middle. The materials are fine, and the design is exquisite with no extra decoration, which shows a spirit of simplicity of Ming furniture. And this spirit has exerted a great impact on modern furniture, especially those in Scandinavia.
