(清中晚期鐵梨木大書桌) This is a nice desk from the 1800's. It is made of the rare Te-Li-Mu (鐵梨木, 鐵力木, Mesua ferrea) hardwood with a simple style and three generous deep drawers.

Te-Li wood was among major wood types used during Ming Dynasty. Older Te-Li-Mu furniture pieces were often made with simple design without much carving in most of the cases with some exceptions. This is because the wood bears beautiful grain and is somewhat in a grayish brown color that is considered subtle elegance and aligned with the aesthetics of simplicity from the literati class during Ming. Older furniture pieces made of this wood sought to express nature's organic design in its patterns and flavor in the wood without adding too much man-made influence.

Te-Li wood is sometimes called “poor man's Ji-Qi-Mu” because these two types of wood have similar looking grain and color with Te-Li wood being more porous and lighter in color compared to Ji-Qi-Mu (Chicken-Feather-Wood or Chicken-Wing-Wood; Millettia Laurentii, 雞翅木, 鸂鶒木 Xi-Chi-Mu, 杞梓木) . Also, the grain of Te-Li wood tends to be more in straight lines even though, with different cuts, it also shows some circular or dramatic patterns; while Ji-Qi-Mu by large has very dense, tighter, and smaller circular patterns besides being much darker in color and is a much denser and finer wood than Te-Li. However, old furniture pieces made of Te-Li wood are very rare and are very much sought after. In the detailed photos shown, one can see the different cuts of Te-Li wood on this Qing Dynasty table that show different patterns of grain.

Dimensions: 51.5” L x 23.25” D x 33.75” H.

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