A ‘YELLOW WAX’ STONE SCHOLAR'S ROCK
This lot is offered without reserve.
A ‘YELLOW WAX’ STONE SCHOLAR'S ROCK

CHINA, QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)

Details
A ‘YELLOW WAX’ STONE SCHOLAR'S ROCK
CHINA, QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
The golden caramel-toned stone suggestive of a large rounded overhanging cliff, with open pitted cavities and web-textured surface
12 3/8 in. (31.4 cm.) wide, wood stand
Provenance
The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, before 1984.
Literature
A. Martin, “American Mandarin,” Connoisseur, November 1984, p. 99.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.

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Gemma Sudlow
Gemma Sudlow

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Lot Essay

According to John Hay in Kernels of Energy, Bones of Earth, New York, 1985, p. 137, no. 19, the surface of this quartzite stone, also called 'yellow wax' stone, has warmth and depth of appearance that the Chinese would call "moist" (run).

Robert Mowry, in his discussion of a smaller 'yellow wax' stone scholar's rock in the catalogue for the exhibition, World's Within Worlds: the Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholar's Rocks, Harvard University Art Museums, 1997, p. 271, no. 61, notes that these types of stones were obtained from riverbeds in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, and "were first collected for studio display during the Qing dynasty, probably in the seventeenth or eighteenth century." The rocks are valued for their golden caramel color, and often have a textured surface.

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