Chinese Scholar's Rock

Older than any scholar who ever admired it, by a considerable margin.

This scholar's rock is a fossil ammonite from Guangxi Province, China, of indeterminate age, set on a hardwood base. Chinese scholars kept striking natural stones on their desks as objects for contemplation, and an ammonite, a spiral-shelled sea creature that died out with the dinosaurs, fits that taste. Fine ribs radiate across the coil, tightening toward a small center, in tones of tan and slate. Knobby growths break the outline at the upper left. The base is black and stepped. Twenty-four and a half inches high.

It spent a long time getting to this desk.