The form here is more commonly associated with pieces made in China and is that of a small low table designed to be used in combination with a ‘kang’, a raised brick platform heated from below that served as a family's main living, sleeping, and dining area during colder months. But similar pieces were also made by the Japanese, sometimes in black lacquer with mother of pearl inlay, and the style of the carving here suggests Japanese rather than Chinese workmanship. All the decorative elements seen here (phoenix, pine, waves) can be found elsewhere in Japanese art but there does not seem to be any specific symbolic meaning intended, just an imaginative composition by an accomplished craftsman. Dating is probably to the first half of the twentieth century and the carved marking are almost certainly later, with the original format ‘dymo’ label dating most likely to the 1960s.