About Ink Stones

      On this page, we are going to showcase some of the historical She ( Shi ) inkstone that are treasured at various museums in China or other countries.  Though Shi inkstone is one of the Four Treasures of Chinese study and most famous among the four best known inkstones in Chinese history. Shi inkstone has been very rare. They are most valuable, because of it's very low quantity can be found in each mine (quarry) . Many of the modern inkstone carvers  in Shi county are turning to carve Duan inkstone (for example: Sulu Chen), because they can buy the big pieces of raw Duan inkstones by the kilograms. Also Shi inkstones are rare slate stone, they are much more difficult to find pieces that are big, thick and flawless. Most of the priceless historical piece are thin and small pieces. Also on this page, we will showcase some of the Museum quality inkstones that we found for our collectors.  As you can see, what kind of value we provided for our customers. If you see a perticular kind of inkstone that is still not in your collection, but would like to have one. Always send us a line, so we can keep our eyes open for you.  Museum quality inkstone do not come by that easy, especially dragon's tail stone. Almost all of the commercial inkstone that are offered are not Lao Kang stone anymore. Lao Kang dragon's tail stone can only be found from other collectors or some carvers who stored them up before.

    Below is a Shi inkstone we found for one of our collector in Singapore. It was found from one of Qingshu Fang's student's collection. It was really rare to find such a big Lao Kang Long Eyebrows mark. The stone was flawless too. Super fine grain and rich darkness. Just as described in the poet ---- "Song of Mei Zi Shi Yan" (Song of Eyebrows Mark Shi Inkstone) by the  famous Chinese Song dynasty artist and poet Su, Dongpou (Su Shi 1037 - 1101).

     Dong Pou is one of the most known Song dynasty scholars in Chinese history. Born in Sichuan province. While his brother was the head of Jiqi (neighboring county to She county) county, he came to Shi county  seeking for Shi inkstone. When he arrived Jiqi, thousands of workers were constructing the  river bank around the city, his brother came to the western gate bridge to welcome him. Later the river bank   was named  "Su Gong River Bank" (Grand Father Su River Bank ), the bridge was named "Welcome Su Bridge"). After he arrived Shi county, a lot of people invited him for paintings and calligraphy. But all the inkstones used were brick instone. He wrote: "Calligraphy and painting is my whole life, inkstone is like my rice field. It's such a pity, now I am in She inkstone country. But I cannot see any Shi inkstone."

        How our inkstones are collected and presented: First we do not find any inkstones from the local market, not just the quality from the local market is not acceptable for us, also our motive is to promote the local culture and local artists in Huizhou, we are only interested in the finest work from the local artists. Because each piece of stone is different and quality is also very different, the ordinary quality ones and low quality ones, through the local channel in China, we already take care of them for the artists. Unfortunately most of them belong to these categories. What we presented on the web and to our foreign collectors are only the best quality ones and really rare pieces. The price of each piece reflects the rarity and quality of the stone and the skills of the carver.
        All of Yonghong and Libing's carvings are very skilled, clean, and sharp. How each stone is selected and designed makes it such a pleasure to feel it and hold it in your hand. I wish we could make them more affordable for you, but unfortunately their work are in such high demand and also because they do all the work from beginning to end by themselves, the number of carvings they make are very limited. I think this is what collecting is all about. The last few years, we provided a lot of value to our collectors. Because of our web advocate, the artists become very popular and I think this is wonderful and is what we are all about!

      All of the following inkstones are sold through our web, now China's economy is very hot, collectibles are popular again. Most of the US population never heard of an "inkstone" in their life, though just a hundred years ago, ink was also grounded through an inkstone here. It's only this country's technology develop is so fast, by our generation, inkstone has already been totally disappeared from our life. Li and Zhang's inkstone price is not really what this market can absorb anymore, now we begin to introduce new artists, in this way we continue to bring you inkstones for use without compromising in quality of grinding ink, at the same time we help promote the new artists in China.

   Looking at the following inkstone, one of the key value as an inkstone is it's functionality ---- smooth grinding surface, large grinding area, carving is only just to enhance it's look, gives people a pleasure while they wash their stone at the end of the day, never a dominating creation! A good inkstone maker follow the philosophy from our thousand year old grand father art collector and artist  ---- Mi Fu (1052-1107) who wrote  "The merit of an implement depends on it's being usable. Of jade one does not make sacrificial tripods, of earthenware one does not make pillars. ...... In just the same way the grain of the stone and producing of ink are the main things; the color comes next, and least important are the shape and quality of the workmanship."

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