Note: Large tables are often erroneously labelled painting tables, but to be considered a true painting table, such as the present table, the surface must be broad enough to accommodate a large painting and the accoutrements associated with painting or calligraphy (ink, ink stones, brushes, and washers, etc.). Tables of this large size would also be ideal for the appreciation of a painting. 

Tables of this elegant and restrained form, with the graceful splay of the legs, trace their origins to furniture design of the Song dynasty, and several variations on this type are known. The spare, economic lines of this design make it one of the classic forms found in Chinese furniture construction. The basic proportions were adapted to make large painting tables, smaller tables, benches and stools. This form is referred to in the Classic of Lu Ban as a 'character one' table, due to its similarity in profile to the single horizontal stroke of the Chinese character for 'one'.

A huanghuali recessed-leg table of similar proportions is published by G. Ecke in Chinese Domestic Furniture, Vermont and Tokyo, 1962, p. 46, pl. 36. See also, a slightly larger huanghuali painting table (195.5 cm.), sold at Christie’s New York, 18 March 2015, lot 122, and formerly in the Robert H. Ellsworth collection.