Chinese Scholar's Rock

Wide at the top, pinched at the waist, and banded like a slice of desert canyon.

This scholar's rock comes from Guangxi, China, and is yellow wax stone on a hardwood stand. Chinese scholars have long collected naturally shaped stones for their desks, admiring them as miniature landscapes and objects of contemplation. This one has a broad, rounded cap that overhangs a narrower, waisted body, giving it the look of a mushroom or a weathered pillar. Fine horizontal bands in ochre, tan and rust run around it, with small dark speckles at the middle. It sits in a fitted dark hardwood base. It is 5.25 inches high, 4.75 wide and 3 deep.

Nature did the carving, and someone had the good sense to notice.