A huanghuali waisted low bench with corner legs Late Ming / Early Qing Dynasty, 17th / 18th Century

constructed with a solid-board top of good figuring and 'ghost-face' whorls, set on a squared lower lip, above a low waist, before squared corner legs terminating in low hoof feet, all secured by humpbacked stretchers in squared members forming a complex join with hidden tenons at the legs

It is extremely rare to find a bench with such a substantial solid-board top, versus the floating panel top. Typically such a generous use of wood would have been later cannibalized and used for repairing other pieces, or possibly even reconstructing smaller pieces of furniture.