My chicken-blood stone

Recently I acquired a large chicken-blood stone from a friend. It sits on a soapstone stand which in itself is a well crafted piece of artwork. The material of the stand is a qing tian soapstone.

The chicken-blood stone is one of the most priced seal stones only found in China in the county of Changhua. It is priced because of the traces of red colour found on the surface of the stone. The red hue may infused into the inner layer of the stone. The colour is almost as red as the blood flowing out from a freshly killed chicken. Hence the name of the stone is called chicken-blood stone.

It is generally used as material for making seals in early days. The Qian Long emperor of the Qing Dynasty called this the Queen of seal stones, the King of seal stones being the Tian Huang which is more expensive than gold on a weight basis.

Chicken-blood stone can be carved into delicate and exquisite carvings that depict many things in the Chinese culture.

This stone is almost 30 cm in height