| Description |
"An extraordinarily rare and fine 19th century Chinese agar wood carving, in the round, of an Erxian group also known as the Immortal Twins, on a carved fitted wood stand. The figures are named Shide and Hanshan. Shide holds a lotus and Hanshan is depicted with a basket with a bat hovering above the raised lid. The rockwork base has a prunus branch and a carved artist's signature which reads Yangshe, 4 3/4"h. with stand.
The HeHe Erxian, twin laughing immortals are known as the Gods of Peace and Harmony, the Gods of Unity and Harmony, the Laughing Twins and the Gods of Mirth who bestow blessings on marriages. Their names were derived from two Tang dynasty Buddhist poet monks Shide and Hanshan.
Agar wood is a resinous substance formed inside agar wood trees that arises as a result of infection with a type of mold. Prior to infection, the timber of the tree does not bear any scent but, when the tree is wounded and infected by a type of mold, the tree produces resin to aid in suppressing the fungal growth. This resin is dark, dense, and aromatic. The resin embedded wood is commonly known as eagle wood. aloes wood or agar wood. It is know by various names in different cultures: "chenxiang", "chenshuixiang" and "shuichenxiang" in Chinese; "aguru" in Sanskrit; "oud" in Arabic; amd "gaharu" in Indonesian. Regarded as the most precious kind of wood in the world, it is indeed an extremely rare natural resource. The rich and elegant aroma of agar wood mainly derives from aloe wood oil (or agar wood resin). From the perspective of current botany, four families of trees are known to produce agar wood, namely Thymelaeaceae, Burseraceae, Lauraceae and Euphorbiaceae. Trees with wounds and/or fungal infection, will produce resin for self-treatment to suppress the aforementioned problems. This process can take hundreds of years, by which time the resin and wood fibers integrate and transform into resinous agar wood, carrying a unique fragrance known as "incense formation" or "agar wood formation".
The four families of trees that are capable of producing agarwood are: Thymelaeaceae: Majority of trees that produce agar wood belong to the genus Aquilaria, which mainly grow in regions in South China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, India and Indonesia; Burseraceae: Trees in the Burseraceae family that can form agar wood mainly grow in central South America; Lauraceae: Trees in the Lauraceae family that can form agarwood maily grow in central South America; Euphorbiaceae: Trees in the Euphorbiaceae family that can form agarwood are mainly distributed in the tropics.
The pleasant aroma and rarity of agar wood makes it a precious sculpting material. Large and intact agar wood pieces for creating sculptures are hard to find. Related artworks are relatively small in numbers. Furniture made from large pieces of intact agar wood are seldom if ever seen on the market. Towards the end of the 20th century, agar wood was listed as a potentially threatened species of plant by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora." - - Bernie MacManus, Appraiser, Appraiser, Woodbury House, 5/29/2014 |
