Ebony (wumu) Carving
Qing dynasty, 19th century
£23,000
Ebony (wumu) carving, in the form of a scholar’s rock, of pleasingly balanced vertical form, carved with well-placed pierced holes and depressions. The carving tapers to a narrow base, supported on a carved hardwood stand. The ebony has a glossy dark blackish-brown patina.
Height with stand: 29.5cm
Provenance:
MD Flacks, London.
Exhibited:
London, 2019, Eskenazi Limited.
Published:
MD Flacks, Contemplating Rocks, London, 2012, pages 76, 77 and 182.
Eskenazi Limited, Room for study: fifty scholars’ objects, London 2019, number 32.
Just as potters of the Qing period delighted in imitating the surface effects of different substances in ceramic – copying a variety of materials such as enamel, stone and wood – similarly, craftsmen must have delighted in the visual pun of creating a scholar’s ‘rock’ in wood. In this case, the density and hardness of ebony beautifully simulates the surface of a rock.