Chinese Picture Stone

Cream bands cross oxblood stone like a river seen from a great height.

This picture stone comes from Guangxi, China. Picture stones are cut and polished so that natural patterns in the stone suggest landscapes, an aesthetic long cherished in Chinese scholarly taste alongside the more sculptural scholar's rocks. This one is a tall rectangular block in deep red-brown, crossed by wavering cream and grey bands. A fine dark vein runs down the center like a fissure or a path. Small flecks of yellow and green dot the surface. It sits in a fitted dark wood stand. It is 4 inches wide, 4 deep and 8.75 high.

No brush was involved, though it is hard to believe.