Chrysanthemum Stones: The Story of Stone Flowers

This is the first book in English on these extraordinarily beautiful stones, a specialized focus of the art of stone appreciation that originated and flourished in Asia over 2,000 years ago. These stones are found primarily in China and Japan, but more recently examples are known from Korea and the western United States. The authors traveled extensively in China and Japan to bring together historical information with current new data to provide readers with the only work encompassing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and North American stones. This comprehensive work sets a new standard for books relating to the art of stone appreciation. Now, for the first time, readers can gain an in-depth understanding of chrysanthemum stones, the geology of their formation, the history of their appreciation and their various types, forms, and locales of origin. Chrysanthemum Stones is generously illustrated with over 120 photographs showing the full range of chrysanthemum stones from the rarest and most valuable to those more frequently encountered in the marketplace. Readers are also provided with the most complete set of published references to chrysanthemum stones ever assembled in one publication.