This is a handmade Chinese lacquer rectangular tray, with a solid black lacquer center framed by a raised black-and-gold rhino skin lacquer (Xipi, 犀皮漆) border, on a solid Burma padauk (缅甸花梨) body, from the Chong Series by HFDlacquerware (禾丰鼎). At 15" × 10.2", it finds its place easily: on a scholar's desk, beside the bed to hold what you empty from your pockets each night, or on a console table where the textured border catches the light differently every time you pass.

In the Chong Series, the groundwork is built up high before the lacquer goes on, so the pattern rises and falls like terraced fields. Each Chong Series piece takes two to three years to make. The final step is done entirely by hand: kaiqing tuiguang (开清推光), polishing the surface with the palm until it reaches a soft, deep luster. The pattern forms on its own, so no two trays are alike.

The center is kept quiet, plain black, a space left empty on purpose. All the movement is at the edges, where the gold climbs and falls like fields cut into a hillside. What you set down in the middle becomes the thing it frames.

Also available in flowing gold lacquer and in other rhino skin colors: see the Flowing Gold, Red & Gold, and Black & Blue versions.