QING DYNASTY

The Chinese have a great admiration for unusually shaped rocks that reaches back at least to the 5th Century B.C., when the increasing refinement of the culture surrounding the life and leisure of the scholar began to create a microcosm within the studio to reflect the harmonies of the world without. As early as the Han dynasty gardens were built which incorporated aesthetically pleasing stones as sculpture in the garden.

Rocks may be divided into three categories, landscape or architectural rocks (such as the 'bridge' in lot 149), the zoomorphic rocks (occasionally also including humanoid figures, such as the present lot, which may be compared to an ancient, but upright scholar), and the fantastic rocks reminiscent of Daoist fairy grottoes.