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Agate, anciently called qiong yu (divine jade), appeared in the Book of Songs. The Tang Dynasty's "Gilded Beast-Head Agate Cup" from the Hejia Village hoard encapsulates Silk Road exchanges—crafted from West Asian banded agate, its Persian rhyton shape fused Greek drinking vessel motifs with Central Asian totems, reflecting Chang'an's cosmopolitanism.

The gilded beast-head agate cup from the Hejia Village Tang Dynasty hoard (now in Shaanxi History Museum) originated from the Persian rhyton, yet its animal head was transformed into a Chinese dragon motif, echoing the Old Book of Tang’s record: “The Western Regions presented agate vessels with beast heads; the court ordered their shapes modified to embody the dragon’s virtue.” Deerwhisper’s ‌

Zhou Mi’s Record of Passing Clouds and Mist (Southern Song) described Mi Fu’s crystal brush rest as “resembling a frozen waterfall.” Ming scholar Wen Zhenheng’s Treatise on Superfluous Things praised crystal desk screens for “softening characters like mist.” Deerwhisper’s ‌“Jade Rinsing” scholar’s set‌ includes a crystal paperweight modeled after the mountain contours in Ni Zan’s Rongxi Studio (Yuan Dynasty), a brush washer engraved with Southern Song poet Yue Ke’s line “A crystal vessel, pure and flawless,” and a seal topped with a micro-carving of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. These embody the literati ideal of “utensils conveying cultural refinement.”