Set of Four 1970s Lacquered Stacking Tables in the Chinese Style

This lacquered 18th century Edo period altar table was probably made for the private shrine of an aristocratic home. There, it would have been placed before an image of a deity, and ...

In the 1920s Gio Ponti, who defined 20th century Italian design, was the art director of Richard-Ginori, a venerable porcelain company established in the 18th century. When Ponti moved on in 1930, his protégé Giovanni Gariboldi, who also designed furniture and interiors, filled the vacated position. It would seem that Gariboldi found his model for these shell-shaped dishes in nature, but this is not the case. Rather, he channeled the essence of “shellness," and endowed his design with the faux verisimilitude of delicate ribbing along the scalloped edge. Yet he had them glazed in improbable candy-like pastel colors of pink, yellow, and blue. Originally used principally as ashtrays, no doubt, they could also be put to use as serving dishes for nuts and candies, or as decorative tabletop objects...

This antique set of lacquered nesting tables was made by Wong Kwoko Hing from Canton China in circa 1910 in the period chinoiserie style. These graduated nesting tables are construct...

Japanese circa 1860 A late nineteenth century set of three graduated Meiji period lacquer tray tables, stacking one atop the other, with black and gold chinoiserie decoration throug...