The two small, green dragons we have are beautiful pieces. They're about 12cm high and came from my mother's uncle Stanley who had been the editor of the Times of India and who retired to England a very rich man. The dragons themselves have been carved out of malachite, a natural copper carbonate hydroxide mineral which is a deep, rich colour and often slightly banded, while the bases are supposed to be of rose wood.
We don't know where they came from. They might be Chinese but, as far as I know, great uncle Stanley never travelled to China. When my mother had some of her items valued by Christies the valuer didn't know what they were and put a tentative value of £190 on the pair.
Sadly, they are both damaged, which isn't surprising as some of the carving is very fine and malachite is brittle. A whole piece came away at '
1' and was inexpertly glued back in place while the crest, '
2', is missing.
Fortunately, we have the flower broken off at '
3' but I hesitate to use glue on it.
I'm very fond of the dragons partly because I have a huge respect for the skilled craftsmen who carved them. Carving malachite must have been a dispiriting business as it would have broken so easily.
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