Chinese Scholar's Rock on Rosewood Base

A rock doing an excellent impression of a cloud front.

This scholar's rock on a rosewood base comes from Yingde, in Guangdong Province, China, and is Yingde stone. The scholar's rock tradition asked a stone to suggest something larger than itself, a peak, a cave, a storm, and left the rest to the viewer. This one leans out sideways from a narrow foot, pale and deeply layered, its surface raked with hollows and ledges. A small window opens through the far end. The dark base follows the contour in stepped, lobed tiers. Fourteen inches high and 26 wide.

All that overhang, and not a hint of worry about gravity.