Carved Minerals
Recumbent Horse in Xiuyan Jade
- Material ·
- Xiuyan jade (serpentine)
- Era ·
- Contemporary, in the zi liao tradition
- Dimensions ·
- L 14.0 cm × W 5.7 cm × H 6.4 cm (5.5 × 2.25 × 2.5 in)
$4,800
Exhibition · Online cabinet
Carvings, Curios
& Scholars’ Objects
Fine art from past to present, for the 21st century literati.
Jade, hardstone, ink stones, seals, and scholar’s rocks — shown with wall text and scholarly catalog notes. A museum pace for the literati desk. Alongside these works are antique curios gathered during Jacob Kabinoff’s travels, each collected for its character and history and offered for sale. The cabinet brings together painting, gem carving, digital creations, and physical sculpture — all available to acquire. Some pieces carry centuries of history; others are contemporary works shaped by the hand, the eye, and the imagination. Each is chosen for its beauty, craftsmanship, and artistic presence: carvings and treasures whose material, history, and form express the cabinet’s essential spirit of artistry and wonder.
Exhibition rooms
Three rooms
The cabinet unfolds across three rooms: Room I gathers unique mineral carvings, each standing on its own as a scholar’s stone shaped from precious material; Room II is devoted to scholar’s objects for the writing table — ink stones, brush rests, seals, bitong, and rocks; and Room III brings together bronze and enamel vessels alongside singular finds for the cabinet of curiosities.
Room I
Carved Minerals
Carved like miniature freestanding scholar's rocks, but from extraordinarily rare and precious gemstone material.
Room II
Scholar's Objects
Ink stones, brush rests, seals, bitong, and rocks for the writing table — wenfang companions.
Room III
Curios
Painted masks, enamel vessels, and singular finds for the cabinet of curiosities.
Philosophy
Carved minerals, scholar’s objects, and curios—shown as though in a private museum. Kept by Jacob Kabinoff, painter, gem carver, and digital creator; artist and collector in a living symbiosis, where understanding, feeling, owning, and making are inseparable. Original works by Jacob Kabinoff are presented beside antique pieces, each with its own memory, provenance, and presence.
Contemporary and antique works are for sale, gathered in a collection that moves between past and present, between hand and object, between the intimacy of the maker and the contemplative eye of the collector. He walks with one foot planted in the past and the other foot in the present, two worlds.
Selected works
On view
Scholar's Objects
Duan Ink Stone with Pine Pavilion
- Material ·
- Duan stone (Zhaoqing)
- Era ·
- Qing dynasty, 19th century
- Dimensions ·
- L 18.2 cm × W 12.6 cm × H 3.4 cm
$2,200
Scholar's Objects
Lingbi Scholar's Rock
- Material ·
- Lingbi limestone
- Era ·
- Qing dynasty
- Dimensions ·
- H 28.5 cm including stand
$3,600
Carved Minerals
Spinach Jade Bi Disc
- Material ·
- Spinach-green nephrite
- Era ·
- Qing dynasty
- Dimensions ·
- Diam. 16.8 cm
$3,200
Journal
Notes on art
Academic essays on scholar’s rocks, jade carving, ink stones, and the literati desk.
Essay · Wenfang
The Grind as Landscape: Duan Ink Stones
An ink stone is judged twice: once as a grind that respects the brush, and once as a miniature mountain whose well holds night until water and soot arrive.
7 min read
Essay · Mineral
Skin and Silence: Notes on Jade Carving
Hetian nephrite teaches that the river’s skin is not waste. Russet cortex kept along a mane or flank is both evidence and composition — the mountain’s weather left on the animal’s back.
9 min read