This brilliantly painted small table takes its principal design conception and decoration program from the ancient Chinese decorative and symbolic motif of Auspicious Clouds (xiangyun) that was featured in Chinese painting, textiles, furniture, and architecture as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). In Chinese culture, clouds (especially five-colored clouds) are believed to be an auspicious harbinger and symbolic of Heaven, happiness, and prosperity. In Buddhism, clouds can symbolize the transitory nature of existence, much like the ephemeral nature of clouds.
A large cloud-form apron extends around the lower front and sides of the table, and functions as its legs. Pendant foliage branches in the center spread across the upper edge and down as corner wraps. The upper third of the table is a multicolored series of rectangles within rectangles. The now-unadorned topboard has a rounded edge embellished with painted scrolling foliage. The plain back is painted green and has a red sliding compartment door with a lobed opening and locking hasp.
See David Kamansky, ed., Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum and Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004), pp. 198-199, no. 22.
