Chinese Scholar's Rock

More holes than stone, and the holes are doing the work.

This scholar's rock comes from Yunnan Province, China. It is Southern "Taihu" stone on a hardwood base, and its age is indeterminate. Chinese connoisseurs praised rocks that were thin, perforated and wrinkled, and kept them in studios and gardens as small mountains with the weather still in them. This pale, pitted form opens into a dozen hollows and rises to a crooked peak. The dark base stands on four curled feet. Fifteen inches high and eight wide.

Air has seldom been so carefully arranged.