Scholar’s stone in the form of a mountain with natural apertures, with a carved hard wood 17th century fitted stand. Chinese, Qing Dynasty, 17th century. The stone extensively carved with inscriptions and seals, among them that of Gao Shiqui, the famous Early Qing Dynasty scholar (1645 – 1703). With a Japanese collector’s cypress wood storage box.

The storage box inscribed on the exterior: Taihu Shi or Stone from Lake Tai, followed by: Dongtian Shi’er or Cave Heaven 12, and Yunlin Huayi or Painting Idea of Yunlin, and beneath these: Shu-Ke or Written (and) Carved.

The stone itself carved with an inscription: Yunlin Huayi or (Reminding Me) of the Stone Paintings of Yunlin, (the famous Yuan artist Ni Tian); with the carved signature: Jiancun and seal: Zuchuang (both art names of Gao Shiqui, 1645 – 1703). A second inscription reads: Dongtian Sh’ier or Cave Heaven 12 (referring to the twelfth in a series of Heavenly Cave stones. The suggestion seems to be that of the old Chinese idea of caves as entrances to another, timeless realm. Following is another seal, as yet unidentified, and another seal of another former collector.