Inkstone

Before writing or painting with a brush, a little water is put on the inkstone and an inkstick is ground on it into liquid ink. The flat surface used for grinding and the hollow where the ink collects are the two basic parts. The earliest inkstone yet excavated, from the 3rd century BC, comes from a tomb in Yunmeng, Hubei, and inkstones came into wide use in the Han dynasty. The Four Famous Inkstones are Duan stone from Zhaoqing in Guangdong, She stone from She County in Anhui and Wuyuan in Jiangxi, Tao stone from the bed of the Tao River in Gansu, and Chengni, made of fired clay; on Duan stone, round natural markings called stone eyes are especially prized. The National Palace Museum describes the inkstone's form as changing again and again over some two thousand years, and names Su Shi and Mi Fu of the Song dynasty and Gao Fenghan of the Qing as famous lovers of inkstones. The exhibition shows more than a hundred inkstones from the museum and fifteen lent by the National Museum of History to fill in the early forms.

First look at the grinding surface for signs of wear from use, then at the rim and the back: is there an inscription, a collector's name, or a carved design?

Is this inkstone a tool for grinding ink, or an object to be admired? What tells you?