A beautiful brass ginkgo leaf, both a fine recreation of South East Chinese foliage and a vessel for philosophical questions.

Ginko lineage stretches back hundreds of millions of years to the earliest days of man. Anything that has felt ice ages thaw, heard cavemen roar and seen countless acts of war takes on a mythic quality. And the maidenhair tree's longevity means it provokes the same questions now as it did millennia ago.

"Ginkgo Biloba" is a lyrical ode by the great poet Goethe - one that asks what the construction of the leaf may mean. "Are there two which choose to mingle / so that each as one now hides?" Maybe the answer differs between pessimists and optimists, cynics and romantics. Does the leaf represent one splitting into two or two beings becoming one? There's no wrong answer. The only clear truth is that the ginkgo - the leaf and this brass recreation - will survive to inspire these questions for many years to come.

Gold Ginko plate