In Love With My Ming Style Chow Leg Coffee Table

Hola everyone!

Happy Memorial Day to you!  I hope you had an enjoyable holiday.  Tomorrow it's back to normal and work work work. Sigh.

A couple of days ago I received the June 2013 print edition of Traditional Home:

When I saw the coffee table I gasped, because it is much like my coffee table.  The feet are a little different, as is the color but - see what you think: 

I looked up the source for the table in the Traditional Home Reader's Resource.  It is called the Darjeeling table by Summer Hill, out of business; no further information was given.  I don't know the size, I don't know the material it is made from, or its size.

I purchased my table in 1997 or 1998 at Marshall Field's furniture clearance floor that had taken over the old Gimbel's building in downtown Milwaukee, since closed.  I fell in love with it immediately and gulped and paid $400 for it - insanely expensive for me at the time (still is, actually, LOL!) 

It is solid pine (heavy as heck!) and has a natural/distressed finish with small areas here and there just touched with a faint white-wash. 

My table top measures about 35 and 3/8th inches square, and it is about 15 1/4 inches high.  Because of the bowed out legs, the footprint of the table overall is about 39 1/2 inches square, measured at the widest point of the legs.  This is called a chow style table.  It's from the Ming Dynasty, an incredibly rich period in Chinese history for furniture design.  The form of the legs are actually called "chow" and distinguish this style from other less exaggerated leg styles on Ming Dynasty furniture. 

Curious, I wondered what such style tables are going for today.  So I set out on the hunt!  Here is what I;ve found thus far:

At Amazon.com, this table described as a "contemporary Chinese Ming style with horseshoe feet design legs."  This table is 42" square and 16" high (way larger than mine!)  It has a hand-applied black distressed finish and a beveled glass top.  The material it is made of is not specified, so it could be wood, it could be MDF, or something else.  The cost is $879 plus $179 shipping!  Holy Hathor! I think this is the same table, which says it is made out of elmwood, but there is no mention of a beveled glass top. 

I didn't find anything that matched at Wayfair.  This Hammary chow leg coffee table seems to be very popular in the search findings, but it is rectangular, not square.  Sure is pretty, though. Here is one example:

It's large!  56" x 36" x 17" tall.  Discounted price at The Simple Coffee Table Store is $630 and offers free "curbside" shipping. So they just leave it parked in your driveway or on your sidewalk???

I'm a little taken aback by the color of this table - it appears to be stained orange, but it may just be a bad photograph, too.  It's offered by Furniture by Zoostores:

This is the Compass Home Furnishings Carrara cocktail table.  The specs are "fuzzy."  I'm not sure if this table is 30" square of 36" square!  It is made of some type of unspecified "Asian hardwood," is 18-19" high and has a "medium wood" finish.  It is not quite the classic bowed chow leg, more like the Ming style called "banana leg" but it does end in a horse hoof foot.  It is priced at $739 plus free shipping.

So, rather slim pickings!  I have to go to bed now, must be out the door by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, sigh.  If I find any more likely prospects I'll do an update.