Chinese GONGSHI OR Scholar's Rock

Little purple globes cluster together like a bunch of grapes that decided to become a mountain.

This gongshi, or scholar's rock, comes from China and is agate on a hardwood base. Chinese scholars have long kept striking natural stones in their studios as objects of contemplation, valuing shapes that suggest mountains, clouds or living things. This stone is a tall, twisting column covered in tiny rounded botryoidal beads of lavender-purple agate, with touches of green and white crystalline crust along one edge. It flares into a dense, bulbous crown at the top. A dark fitted wooden base holds it upright. It is 4 inches wide, 4 deep and 13 high.

Grapes, as imagined by a geologist.