(早清柞榛木圓腿茶几) This Very Rare 17-18th Century Ming Style Tea Table is constructed of a very rare Chinese hardwood call "Jar-Zheng Mu, 柞榛木". "Mu" is "Wood". It is a very dense wood almost like shining rock when hand-polished without applying a lacquer finish to it. Its original raw wood has an obvious green hue to it, and as the furniture aged, the wood turned into an almost dark gray-brown color with large swashes of light beige color in the wood. At old days, furniture made of this wood were much prized by the Shanghai area antique dealers and often only a few examples of the old pieces could be found in the more prominent antique stores. Furniture made of this wood tended to carry the traditional Ming style design and look, with many from the mid Qing period and also the reproduced Ming style pieces. Occasionally a few from the early Qing or Ming could be found in which case they seemed to carry the similar structure of the early period furniture pieces.

This tea table is generously built with good material with thick rounded posts without decoration or unnecessary parts. Its clean design resembles those of early furniture pieces as well. The middle shelf is handy. There are some stains. Otherwise, the furniture itself is structurally intact with the moisture-worn feet that carry the characteristics of very old furniture pieces.

There has been more publication published in recent years in China in regards to the research of furniture pieces made of this wood with more examples can be seen now. However, old furniure pieces made of this wood remain very rare.

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