The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1892-09-24
CARVING THE TEA ROOT.
Curious Industry Which Furnishes EN-.
i,loynaent to Many Celestials.

For more than hundred genera
tions, says the Collector. there has been
guild of artists in the populous prov
ince of Fo-kien whose life work is the
conversion of the gnarled and inter-
laced roots of the tea tree into things
of beauty-thatis, beauty from celes-
tial point of view. The herb whose
leaves gladden. western palates in the
form of Oolong, Hyson and souchong
is hardy plant and takes firm hold
on mother earth. Its roots seem to
have no regular law of growth, Some
times they develop very much as a
beard sprouts from the chin; at others
they separate and move along parallel
lines asif they were a lignose centipede.
In general it may be said that they
make one large, clumsy mass from
which shoot out everywhere from three
to thirty rootlcts. Their surface is
never smooth, but always irregularly
corrugated. The value of root de-
pends upon its size, its outline, its
freedom from decay, and its suggest
iveness of some everyday object. 1t is
rare that main root OF root mass is
more than six inches in diameter
| Such belong to trees ranging in age
from thirty years to o century. In
frequently they attain to twelve and
| fifteen inches, and are then said by
! Chinese experts to be 400 and 500 years
old. The roots are dug from the soil
and allowed to thoroughly dry in the
open air under shed or else in a
moderately warm room. The loose
earth is carefully removed, as is the
loose bark aud all pieces decayed,
| cracked or wormeaten. The artist
then determines what it is to be. The
favorite types are dragons, buffaloes,
COWS, carnivores, bears, mandarins,
priests, bowling dervishes, dancers or
mythic heroes. If the root cannot be
worked into one of these shapes it is
converted into pedestal or platform
for n figure piece. The primary opera
tion consists in saving it into rough
shape. This is done with fine cross
cut, and the clean edges removed by
rubbing them on tiles or bricks. Some
times root is bent by softening it
with steam or boiling water and then
twisting it in any desired direction.
Now comes the hardest task of all.
The most valued piece is that which
shows no art and seems perfectly nat
ural. The carver goes over the block,
removing hero fiber and there set
of roots, here thinning out one on the
under side and forcing it down, and
there burning another and expanding
it at the burned point. l have one in
my drawing room which is a capital
figure of dragon rearing and opening
his jaws as if to spring upon hls prey.
Careful examination shows that moth
ing had been added to the mask, but
that hundreds of tibres, knots and
corrugations have been skilfully re-
moved.
In nearly every instance human
figure, made in the same manner or
carved from wood of the same color,
or else made partly from tea roots and
partly from carved wood, is added to
the first piece. The designs are end
less in this field. Learned men lcctur-
ing birds, mandarins standing on dra-
gons, boys riding COWS and other ridic-
ulous quadrupeds, dancing bcggars,
men fighting each other, are the COM
monest groups, but of the more un.
common there are thousands. One
famohs artist in Foochow claims tc
have produced, with the aid of his
apprentices, over $1,000 different de-
signs, and Judging from his stock on
hand his claim seems reasonable
enough.
: The tea-root carvings are seldom
very costly, running from 50 cents tc
sl0A. Nine-tcnths bring less than S:
} each. A handsome set of dozen car
be purchased for S20, which will de-
corate u drawing-room or hall better
) than bric-a-brac many times more ex-
, pensivc. The figures are strong, dur
able, and in no danger of fracture by
Bridget or All Sin. Outside of thcil
: aesthetic value they are of interest il
showing the wonderful ingenuity and
\ nnnnn1nu of our GLinasn nn,1sinr