Page 37 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2015Q1

Not ...black, smooth and shiny

MOJAVE
USA

Mexico

he collection and appreciation of unusual
natural stones is ancient, dating back over Grape agates are rare and in
1,000 years in China and later in other great demand within China,
Asian countries. Many of the earlier stones especially multicolored
specimens. This stone with
Tthat were valued, such as Lingbi, Ying, and numerous, small, grape-
Taihu, were varying forms of ancient marine lime- like clusters is 15 cm wide,
stone or metamorphic rocks from carbonate based 24 cm high, and 11.5 cm
materials. These were found in exposed or shallow deep (5.9 x 9.4 x 4.5 inches)
land-based deposits, mountain ranges, while others including the hand carved
base. The base stone
came for lakes or ancient lake beds. These are well underneath the grape-
documented in many of the Imperial Chinese dynas- like clusters has a distinct
ties. Many other stones were taken from rivers, stream lavender color.
and the beds than line waterways. It is only in recent
times that stones originating from desert regions were
being collected and used as viewing stones. This ar- Bottom; Small stones are abundant in the Gobi Desert. This small, turtle, figure stone is 5.5 cm wide,
ticle will illustrate and compare desert stones from the 2.8 cm high and 3.5 cm deep (2.2 x 1.1 x 1.4 inches) and is composed of quartz and chalcedony.
huge Gobi Desert in northern China with the Mojave
Desert of the American Southwest. Most of the Amer-
ican stones are from the personal collection of Hanne
Povlsen, except for two stones from the collection of
Ann Horton. The Gobi stones are from the collection
of Tom Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji.
Gobi Desert stones are unlike most rocks collected
and admired during Imperial China—the Lingbi,
Taihu, Ying, Kunshan and others—except Yellow
Wax stones. The Lingbi, Ying, and other stones were
mainly ones composed of softer carbonate materials
that were shaped mostly by water. They tend to be
varying shades of gray and black along with the white
mineral formations of the Kun stones. In contrast,

January/February/March 2015 | BCI | 35