Chinese Gongshi or Scholar's Rock in Marble Lotus Form Censer

A black peak rising from a white marble flower, with gravel for the valley floor.

This gongshi or scholar's rock comes from Guangdong Province, China, in Yingde stone of indeterminate age. Gongshi, sometimes called spirit stones, were chosen by Chinese scholars as objects for meditation, each jagged form standing for a mountain in miniature. The grey stone climbs in craggy folds laced with white veins, splitting near the top around a narrow gap. It is set upright in black gravel inside a pale marble censer in lotus form, lobed and low. Twenty-one and a half inches high.

A long way up for something that never leaves the room.