Chinese Stone Altar

A small dark doorway, and everyone in the neighborhood has turned out.

This altar is carved from Qing Zhou stone, from Hebei Province, China, dated to the 18th century or earlier. Carved stone shrines of this kind served Chinese household and temple devotion, with niches meant for an image or offering. A square arched recess sits low at the center, flanked by two small lions. Crowded figures, winged forms and a small central image fill the surface above, all in pale stone covered in a fine web of cracks. Thirty-three inches high and 19 wide.

The niche is empty. The rest of the stone seems not to have noticed.