FIGURES CARVED FROM TEA-ROOT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 46, 18 November 1893, Page 431

FIGURES CARVED FROM TEA-ROOT.

A recent visit to a well-stocked Chinese shop revealed to us many objects of curious interest, none more so than the articles carved from the tea root. Then we learned for the first time that tea-root carving is one of the oldest industries in China, and that to-day hundreds of artists make their living by this kind of wood-work. The art of carving the tea-root is peculiar to the Chinese. They claim to have known it a thousand years. However that may be, few things illustrate the wonderful ingenuity and patience of the Chinese better than their tea-root carvings.

The root of the tea-tree seems to be well adapted to the wants and purposes of the artist. It is one thick, irregular, bulblike mass, with a large number of tiny shoots. The surface is always rough and gnarled. The most valued root is one that naturally suggests a group of figures or an artistic design. Thus some roots can be worked into animal and human forms without much trouble, and some require the utmost skill in order to bring out beautiful and striking effects. Here the art of the carver comes in, for one man will see nothing, where another pictures in his mind an elaborate group or design. The favourite figures are mandarins, dragons, birds, and mythical heroes. It is surprising into how many rare and curious figures the roots can be worked. There seems to be no limit to the carver’s ingenuity. For. if the artist cannot make all the figures out of one tea-root, he will add figures from other roots so skilfully that you are hardly able to detect the addition. The art requires infinite patience and pains, and only a Chinese or Japanese workman would spend so many days over a little piece of wood. Some of the more elaborate designs take an artist two, three, or six months to carve and put together.