Lot 1228. A grey lingbi scholar's rock, Song dynasty or later; 23 1/8 in. (58.7 cm.) across. Estimate USD 25,000 - USD 35,000. Price realised USD 80,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010. 

With wide, diagonally set overhang, the form suggestive of two cresting waves or of a landscape with a ravine separating a low mountain range in the foreground and a monumental peak in the distance, the resonant, finely wrinkled, grey stone with some white horizontal veining, Jiangnan-style wood stand. 

Literature: R.D. Mowry, Worlds Within Worlds: The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1997, p. 198, no. 26.

Note: In his catalogue entry for the present rock in Worlds Within Worlds, op. cit., p. 198, Robert D. Mowry states, "Gray and black Lingbi stones came from the same caves in northeastern Anhui province; closely related geologically, they differ in general appearance because gray examples lack the carbonaceous inclusions that give black stones their distinctive color. Their dense structure makes all Lingbi rocks resonant, whatever their color; for reasons not yet understood, however, gray examples tend to be the most resonant. This exceptionally sonorous specimen numbers among the most resonant of all."

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 16 - 17 September 2010