Magnificent Late Eastern Zhou Nephrite Jade Funeral Vessel

- Old Repairs With New & Original Gold Gilt

Late Eastern Zhou Jade Vessel With Old Lacquer Repair

This beautiful Late Eastern Zhou (Warring States Period) Nephrite Jade Vessel is one of the cornerstone pieces in the Fredericks/McIntire Collection and exhibits some marvelous examples of what to look for in an original Period vessel.

Measuring approximately 17-1/2″ Height X 9-1/2″ Width X 4-1/2″ Depth, this wonderful restored vessel has some anomalies which set it apart in the collection, and while not being our largest vessel by any means, it still is one of the most unique true period pieces to grace our  collection. The size, shape, in-situ portions, unique (and old) repairs, original and later added gold-gilding and lacquer, and overall method of construction, truly make this vessel and the highly unusual Hetian Nephrite from which it was constructed,  a magnificent addition to any top collection in the world.

Fredericks/McIntire Collection: Large Jade Funeral Warring States Period Vessel

Side View Of 17-1/2" Jade Vessel Showing Re-Polished and In-Situ Portions

Top Three Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens

One of the most amazing aspects of this particular vessel is the choice of the nephrite stone that was used for its construction – an extremely ‘banded’ nephrite which is often found in jade from the Khotan area, but rarely to this degree. This banding, and what must have been extremely corrosive soil conditions of both the original long-term burial and the subsequent burial following the original lacquer repair, re-cutting, re-polishing and re-gilding, while not being unheard of, is still quite a rarity in this type of vessel. The original stone was one in which there was a looser and more granular type of nephrite that wound its way through the stone, in a series from celadon to darker green, and to harder, more pure, and much more tightly-grained nephrite, which would be considered much more the norm to those of us who study nephrite under microscopic conditions. It is obvious that this particular stone was chosen for this vessel for its ‘power’, as it was made during the times when the Shamanic Ruling Families were still the only ones who could, by law, have possession of the “Stone Of Heaven”.  Jade objects from prior to this period are well known to have been made with such a ‘special’ stone, as were those from almost every subsequent Dynastic Period which followed, and are still being used to this same effect today. Many nephrite ’purists’ tend to collect only the finest examples of Qing Dynasty whites, while it has always been our pleasure to examine the differing types of stones used from all periods, and we have found this approach much more satisfactory to our overall collection than just acquiring, for example, 18TH – 19Th C nephrite from the time when China was perfecting the art of copying their old designs and those of the Mugal of India. While we do find these pieces to be visually pleasing, they certainly lack the spontaneity of the original Masterpieces of Jade from the Neolithic Period onward, and to us carry a certain ‘taint’ of the time when China was still enslaved by the Manchurians.

Late Eastern Zhou Vessel Showing 'Banding' Of The Nephrite In The Different Colors

Top Of The Vessel Showing Same Nephrite Stone Used For The Lid

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens

In the above two photographs, the aforementioned banding that was chosen for some of the sacred vessels can be easily discerned;  it is still used today to create some of the marvelous new works in jade, as were seen in the recent Tiangong Jiang Contest in Beijing. Creativity still abounds in China, and the country as a whole seems to be addressing both new designs and those that venerate the past. However, this portion of Part One is dedicated to various irregularities in nephrite from all over the globe, and particularly that of the Khotan – Hetian region of Turkanistan. The still-current theories on just what makes up nephrite jade, plus the way nephrite forms some 30 miles below the earth’s surface, are common to most books and periodicals about nephrite, with the vast majority of information being more or less ‘parroted’ for the past one hundred years or so. In truth, we have found both Nephrite jade and Jadeite Jade to be extremely more complex, and probably two of the most completely misunderstood stones that have ever been written about or examined under professional and exacting circumstances (with certain exceptions – notably by the American Natural History Museum Of New York, The Smithsonian Institution, and the Harvard University Mineralogical Department, along with some fascinating new discoveries by Mr. Beck from New Zealand). While this particular article will be dealing with certain anomalies present in nephritic jade, there will be other articles in the future showing fascinating anomalies with specimens of Jadeite Jade, that have rarely if ever been noticed, investigated, or documented in writings. The main fallacies concerning nephrite jade are that the stone is made up of one chemical composition, that it is almost entirely the same physical structure, and that it is metamorphic in origin. To take these misconceptions one-by-one will be the thrust of the next paragraphs. We will then continue with our analysis of the subject vessel with our Regular, Macro and Microscopic photography in the remainder of part one and the articles to follow.

While it is true that ‘pure’ nephrite does have a distinctive chemical formula, about which can be found all types of written material (as mentioned before), this is concerning ‘pure’ nephrite, which in our estimation is exhibited in a small minority of what has been considered ‘Jade’  throughout the course of history.  Surely there are many fine examples of  ’pure’ nephrite available for study, but even with these pieces, we often find under microscopic conditions miniature examples of quartz intrusions and other anomalies that defy  such a purist view. As we have written before, there was always a very simple and usable substitution when trying to define the stone characterized as Jade. This most certainly does not pertain to the many simulants, or Type-B treated jades and jadeites that have been on the market for years. This is simply pertaining to what most geologists refer to as ‘pure’ nephrite, and the many forms it takes and minerals it incorporates as it is ‘born’ and moves to the surface, undergoing conditions of heat, pressure and mixing with other types of minerals, and subjected to the upheavals and massive uplifting forces associated with such an uprising. We have explained before that in our opinion, it takes a ratio of approximately 85-90% pure nephrite to call a stone true nephrite. Even at this level of purity, there are minute traces of magnetite, pyrite and other inclusions. A specimen between 65-85% nephrite, in our opinion, should be deemed a hemi-jade, and at 45-65% nephrite, should be called a semi-jade. There are also those stones with the exact chemical composition of nephrite but which lack the nephritic fibers that help to differentiate a true nephrite from a simulant. Papers are available which identify the different minerals found in nephrite by using Raman Spectrography and infra-red spectrography, and some of them are quite remarkable.

Our second premise regarding the fallacy referred to above is that which maintains nephrite as an homogenous structure. To any true student of nephrite jade, this is perhaps the most ludicrous of all assumptions. With a simple loupe, and indeed even with the naked eye and a few dozen specimens from around the globe, the true world of nephrite jade starts to open its doors clearly and succinctly. There have been literally thousands of specimens, from finished sculptural pieces to examples of ‘rough’ nephrite jade that we have examined under microscopic conditions, and if one thing holds true, it is that very few of the nephrites from around the globe are the same. From every source we have examined, we have found similarities and untold anomalies. As in the case with the jade vase above, it is extremely clear that it is not an homogenous stone – all the same color, with the same exact impurities which give the stone its various colors, but rather, it is an awesome specimen of nephritic jade which clearly shows the marvelous diversity of the stone is one complete vessel. There are waves (flows) of color variations, and an entirely  different vein which runs through what would have been a huge vein from the mother-stone from which it separated so long ago. We have tightly-fibered areas (as tight as great Wyoming Nephrite Jade) and areas that are much more granular in composition (much like quartzite but still displaying nephritic tendencies) that have degraded and are visible under microscopic conditions, side by side, which we will demonstrate in the remaining part (or parts) of  this article.

Thirdly, we have the matter of metamorphism of nephrite, which we will address as we go further along in this article and others, as we have thousands of clearly visible instances of this wondrous stone not starting its existence from a metamorphic standpoint, but rather, at least one time in its history having been igneous in nature, as will be throughly explained and shown over the coming months, probably to the point of heavy redundancy.

Extremely Old Lacquer, Iron Filings & Grit Repair To Foot Rim

Later Lacquer & Secondary Gold-Gilt From First Re-Working Of Original Degraded Vessel

Concerning this exquisite example, we find these flows very common to nephrite jade. This can best be understood as a layering of sorts, with definitive lines running in any direction. In the case of this vessel we clearly see, even through the degradation and re-cut and re-polish, the still-existing lines of demarcation stemming from the change of minerals in the original stone. While parts of the vessel retain the differing shades of green indicating the presence of iron in varying amounts, we also can see the red iron oxide tints running through the vessel and indicating, even in these visibly lighter areas more centrally located, that either iron was present and has oxidized, or an iron oxide intrusion had taken place sometime during the vessel’s burials.  Under microscopic examination, it does not appear that an iron oxide intrusion has taken place, but rather that the nephrite that made up this portion of the vessel was less tightly-fibered and as a result, was more porous, causing what little iron there was in the lighter area to oxidize (this will be shown in later microscopic photographs).  As we know from observing so many samples of nephrite both in artifacts and those coming directly from known mined sources, we find an incredible amount of evidence which support the initial igneous theory of nephrite jade. While the original formation of nephrite that fills entire ‘lenses’, dikes, and all sorts of offshoots from the main body, is only as viscous as a hot jelly bean, it still must be viscous to be able to flow in the veins under pressure, as it does. From the actual hard-rock miners we have interviewed, we know that the deeper the vein goes, the more the density of the nephrite changes, and it has been noted that the higher in the vein the nephrite lies, the more dense and tightly fibered it becomes. While this may not be the case in all formations, it is still a fact, as I am now working on carving a wonderful piece of black Khotan nephrite that shows exacting striated layering of black and green and black and green, 8 layers deep. If one goes back in the previous articles on this web site to the pseudomorph writings, one can clearly see extremely old pseudomorphing  combined with later fracturing of the stone as it was lifted, and even new quartz crystals embedded into the same stone. There are so many countless examples of this ‘layering’ and cooling at different levels that we personally find it incredible that modern geology has not addressed these anomalies to date in anything approaching a scientific manner (however, there have been some fine studies done, but they seem to get buried as soon as they surface, and are not accepted by the community at large).

[Due to the holiday season, flu season, and a business to operate, this Part One will be finished asap. Please be patient and return for more of this first part and the parts to follow on this vessel, as the photographs we have are many, and it will take a while to verify and to finish.  Thank You,  David]