Chinese Scholar's Rock on Rosewood Base

A grey rock, standing up very straight, as if it had an appointment.

This scholar's rock on a rosewood base comes from Yingde, in Guangdong Province, China, and it is Yingde stone. Yingde is often counted among China's celebrated stones for the scholar's desk and garden, prized for rough, furrowed surfaces. Here a single narrow spire swells toward the top and tapers to almost nothing at its foot, the surface knobbed, ridged and flecked pale. A dark lobed pedestal, stepped twice, holds it up with no visible effort. Thirty-two inches high and ten wide.

Nature supplied the balance. The base just takes the credit.