Calm Quail

Our ‘Calm Quail' is a piece of art sculpture of a quail. It is made of a whole piece of agalmatolite (Shoushan Stone), coming with a tailor-made wooden box made of precious wood Wumu.

The size of the quail sculpture: L 6.2cm x W 4.5mm x H 4mm.

The size of the wooden box: L 12cmx W 8.7cm x H 6.2cm.

This is a masterpiece of artwork, handcrafted by Dechun Yuan. It is made for collectors. 

Yuan was born in 1980s. He is one of the most famous young Shoushan Stone artisan in China.

His artisan skills are rooted in the traditional Chinese Shoushan Stone carving, and his creations are derived from traditional Chinese scholars' culture. In his works, he develops the traditional Shoushan stone carving themes and gives his works unique contemporary aesthetic characteristics. His works have been collected by various museums in China.   

This sculpture is inspired by a quail in a traditional Chinese painting from Yushan Lin﹝1907 ~ 2004﹞.

In Chinese culture, a quail 「鹌鹑 ān chún」 may symbolise peace as「安 ān peace」 sounds the same as 'quail' in Chinese language. 

This quail sculpture is made of a whole piece of Shoushan Tianhuang stone from Laos. The stone is top-quality grade and in perfect condition. The original colour combination of the stone is skilfully utilised by the artist to create a characteristic quail. 

The facial expression and the beak of quail are impressively lifelike. The body proportion of the quail in the head-turning posture is amazing.

The feathers of the quail is the most outstanding part of this work. 

The artist uses the repetition and size-changing of simple shape to outline the unique beauty of quail feathers.

The different polishing methods between the surface of feather and the feather gap give this sculpture changing visual experience under different light.

The quail has more than 500 feathers on its small body, all of which are elaborately carved piece by piece by the artist.

This is a proof of the artist's unique creativity and his patience, meticulousness and craftsmanship.

At the bottom of this work, the artist uses oracle bone inscriptions to engrave 「山中人唯知自樂，天下事不在多言」（‘The people in the mountains only know and enjoy themselves, and they do not comment that much on the things happened in the world.') and his signature 「袁」.

A specially tailor-made storage box is handcrafted by using precious Chinese wood Wumu.

The box is made of a whole piece of wood. No joints. No glue.

The wood is premium-quality grade.

It has silk-like touch feeling and extremely elegant grains. 

All detail are aimed to be perfect.

Wu Mu is 「乌木」 in Chinese, which means “Black Wood”.

The ‘Black Wood’ is semi-fossilised Phoebe zhennan, which is  a large species of tree, up to 30 metres tall. 

In the past, wood from Phoebe zhennan was so valuable that only royal families could afford their use. Notably, whole logs of Phoebe zhennan wood were used to create pillars for the Forbidden City. 

The wood of Phoebe zhennan is particularly valuable when has become semi-fossilised, and is then referred to as 乌木 Wu Mu, or "Black Wood". The price on the 2012 market could be as high as over $10,000 per cubic meter.

Seeing and feeling this piece of artwork in reality will make you feel much more astonished. 

~We only make special things that can last.~