Chinese Pillar Base - Pumpkin Form

A pumpkin in stone. It will keep.

This pumpkin-form pillar base comes from China and dates to the early 18th century. Its material is stone. Builders in China stood wooden columns on stone bases to carry the weight and spare the timber from rising damp, and masons gave those bases shapes ranging from plain blocks to drums and flowers. Deep vertical ribs swell around the body, rising to a scalloped edge that circles a flat, round top. Below sits a narrow faceted foot. Greenish tones settle in the grooves. It stands 14 inches high and 16 across.

Harvest season, indefinitely.