Page 26 - BSAM 2015 Q4

The Stone Exhibition at BCI 2015 in Guangzhou
A Judge’s Point of View
Text and photos by Lindsay Bebb, Australia
Top left and right; Guangzhou has a very large variety of stones, including the historically famous Ying Stones, a local variety of Yellow Wax Stones, shown on facing page, and an extremely interesting group of Chrysanthemum Stones, shown at the end of this article.
Facing page, top left; First Prize in the Awards.
Facing page, top center; Second place went to a very interesting Laibin Stone from
Guangxi for its detailed character. Photo by Gudrun Benz, Germany.
Facing page, top right ; Third place went to a group of miniature Ying Stones arranged on a circular stand.
Larger photos of the stones awarded the BCI Excellence Award are on page 15.
The viewing Stone Exhibition at the BCI Convention Guangzhou in September occupied several rooms and was about half stones from Guangdong Province and the others from other regions of China. I was asked to judge the exhibition for BCI and select the three best stones to receive Medallions and Certi cates. is is usually a good job in China because of the great variety and quality of stones in most exhibitions and this one was no di erent.
Guangdong is not as rich in Viewing Stones as say, Guangxi, but it does have a very large variety, including the historically famous Ying Stones, a local variety of Yellow Wax Stones and an extremely interesting group of Chrysanthemum Stones. ere was a good variety of these and other stones on exhibit.
I was also very pleased to learn about one stone type that I had not heard of before. I have one in my private collection but did not know what it was, namely a Guangzhou Touch Stone. I awarded one of this type First Prize in the Awards and it is shown at the top le of the facing page. I awarded second place to a very interest- ing Laibin Stone from Guangxi as shown below. I found this to be one of those stones that absorb you... the more you look at it, the more you get immersed in its detailed character, as opposed to the smooth, calming character of the Guangzhou Touch Stone. I hope I get to see this stone again one day.
ird place went to a group of miniature Ying Stones arranged on a circular stand. Unfortunately these were displayed in a glass case (understandable) making it di cult to photograph. e de- tail in this arrangement was spectacular, right down to the wood bases.
24 | BCI | October/November/December 2015