Modern Qingtian Stone Carving Featuring Childhood Pleasure by Zhang Aiting

This exquisite piece of carved stone by Zhang Aiting, a male Chinese arts and crafts master born in 1938 in Qingtian, Zhejiang province, features the theme of childhood pleasure based on the material of Dragon Egg Stone, a variety of Qingtian stones. Based on the special composition of Dragon Egg Stone, namely, an interior in a human-skin-like color wrapped in a reddish black outer layer, the artisan ingeniously crafted five innocent and lively children on the interior, each holding an auspicious item such as ruyi, all covered within the lotus leaf constituted by the outer layer, beside the upper edge of which there are also three bats, a symbol of fortune in the Chinese culture. An inscription of “Childhood Pleasure, by Zhang Aiting” can be found on the front of the piece. Looked from the back, this item is in the shape of a lotus leaf, with a carved pattern of copper coins bearing a lotus blossom and a lotus seed pod in different poses.