Beautiful Ming Dynasty Nephrite Jade Courtesan Figure
Sam Gitchel Family Collection Ming Dynasty Courtesan
Measurements: 10″ Height X 4-1/2″ Width X 1-1/2″ Depth
With the above two photographs of this exquisitely modeled Chinese, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) Courtesan Fine Lady, we have the final two photographs taken for this article, after all cleaning and examinations were completed. Having been verified over two two years ago and displayed during our 2009 Jade Art Now Show and last year’s Jade Through The Ages Show, we have decided to explain to the public just what most real old jade figures go through in the course of their long histories. These first two photos show this masterpiece of Ming-era carving after all cleaning has been finished – waxes removed, all old damage identified and re-repaired, and all three different ages of tooling marks identified and documented under microscopic conditions. It is when we read of pieces having “old polish” that makes us smile, when we can not figure out how anyone could tell “old polish” when a item is covered with wax. As you will see in this article (and as several people have told us they are afraid to do, because of what they might find after spending ‘good money’ on a piece of white jade with “old polish”), it is the only way to truly identify and correctly date waxed pieces using newer carving techniques (and almost all archaistic and archaic styles, as they have truly gotten so good at replicating, and dying the replications). Wax, while being one of the only coverings allowed on both nephrite jade and jadeite so that it can remain what is termed “Type A” (undyed and untreated), and still cover new tooling marks so they can not be seen by the naked eye, or even under a true 30 power loupe, is used to make the jade carvings shine more and cover up small imperfections which occur naturally in both jadeite and nephrite after the carving and final polishing stages. Polymers and centrifuged dyes and waxes would make a piece a “Type B” – ‘treated’ nephrite or jadeite. On the piece above, we have used what we feel is the best treatment for an old carving, a mixture of coconut and camellia oils, which allow the stone to “stay alive” and yet be cleaned off in minutes if a re-verification should ever be required. Though they are rarely thought of in this manner, both nephrite and jade are porous, and as such, absorb moisture and are similar to wood, in that they both need to be kept moist to stay in optimal stability. One white nephrite boulder we brought in from China weighed 78 pounds when it first arrived here in the desert. When we sold this boulder to Georg Schmerholz of Jade Fine Art two weeks later, it weighed 68 pounds after losing 10 lbs of water weight here in the dry Tucson desert heat. Obviously, we are not admirers of waxes on old pieces as they keep the old stones dry, and thus, more prone to fracture. The current oils on the wonderful Courtesan will be absorbed, and more coatings will be applied as needed, until it slows down its absorption – like the ‘old way’, pieces can be lovingly touched and cared for, and true, natural polishing will occur. [Note: The newer white tooling marks can easily be re-polished, using finer grits, by any competent nephrite jade carver, either in the US or China.]
In the three photographs above, we see full views of the Courtesan after we decided to do the article on this fine Chinese masterpiece of true period art. Upon initial verification over two years ago, we had very little time to soak the item in acetone and do a truly proper cleaning before it had its first showing. We did find the more recently broken-off piece from the back, as can be seen on the stand in photos one and two. We re-glued it and oiled it for its first showings, after verifying both the original tooling marks and newer tooling marks, as will be seen in additional photos. For this article, we felt a complete cleaning was in order, and it spent over a month in pure acetone to soften both the latest waxes (approximately 25-50 years ago) and the ones we believe were put on prior to this, in what was most likely late Qing Dynasty Era or the early Republic Period. After the waxes were softened sufficiently, we shot all of the remaining wax off with our power sprayer (powerful enough to cut through skin). Caution must be used while using this type of spray gun so one does not harm either oneself or ‘blow’ old degraded jade off a true old artifact. On this particular piece, the nephrite jade is of the finest Khotan-Hetian quality – extremely dense in its fibering, and as pure as Khotan jade gets. This quality of stone sells for in excess of of $100.00 per gram in China today; for the top artisans who carve it, it is worth the expense. The black lacquer repairs seen in the cracks will be explained as we proceed further into the article.
For those interested, Mr. Sam Gitchel of River Blossom Jade acquired the magnificent sculpture some 10 years ago, in a trade with an elderly Chinese man from California, for one of his phenomenal California Botryoidal Nephrite Jade specimens.
With these first four close-up photographs above, several of the features that we will be examining in depth with the microscopic photographs are starting to be visible. The stylistic features of a true Ming Dynasty classic can be seen in all the photographs above — the lack of deep piercing to the subject, the thinness in depth (front to back thickness of material) of the Courtesan (similar to what we believe are Ming period Indo-China Jadeite pieces in our last article), and the fine treatment of Royal Court dress, but without the deeper detailing known especially in the 18Th Century. After the intensive cleaning this wonderful sculpture underwent, we see the white new tooling marks starting to show up in detail where it had been re-cut only (and not re-polished) the last time this piece was touched, and before the last wax was applied to obscure these newer tooling marks. This is very typical of more recently re-cut pieces, and also modern pieces made in the 18Th Century style. Remove the wax on a modern reproduction of a Qianlong era piece and this new, whiter tooling is all you will see in the grooves, especially in the finest of cuts. The great replicators know how to sand through the cuts in hair and other fine areas to make it look as if the piece were indeed old and worn by handling and cleaning over time, but at the edges of these sanded-through ‘worn’ areas, one will find the white tooling marks of modern tools extending right up to the intentionally worn-looking areas. However, on this magnificent piece, we see true old wear appearing along with the repairs that often accompany authentic old pieces, as real old pieces many times had to be moved or buried during times of war, or withstood earthquakes, or were just subjected to the same things that happen today; risks of having them around children and dogs and etc. These factors are not ‘de-valuators’, but rather , in our opinion, authenticators – old pieces are old and show their age well.
All above photos taken with Canon EOS XSi using EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens
The three photographs above were each taken to show differing aspects of what we will be going into, much more in depth, in the microscopic photos to follow. In the first photo, the lens was trained on the hair lines to begin to show how true natural wear appears (even though most – but not all – of these have been slightly re-cut at differing times). In the second photo above, we have a close-up picture of a once old-black- lacquer-stabilized crack that had been broken off entirely, and repaired in recent times using modern glue that dissolved within a day in the acetone; most likely, it was repaired around the time the last re-cutting was done, and the fragment is shown on the stand in some of the photos above. In the last picture above, we see two different types of old damage on the bottom of the Courtesan, with one being to the viewer’s extreme left; that piece, which was once lacquered on, has been lost for a long time, and its break surface has been worn smooth over time, and has the more botryoidal look an old nephrite jade fracture. The second damaged area occurs not only here in the bottom, as can be seen in the old black lacquer repaired cracks, but on other parts of the figure, as can be easily seen in many of the previous photographs.
All remaining photos taken with Canon EOS XSI at 10-20-30X microscopic power unless otherwise noted.
In the three above photographs, we are looking at the newest re-cut area of the flower on the necklace around the Courtesan figure’s neck. As you will see in following microscopic photos, these areas have most likely seen a past re-cutting, though not quite as deeply as were these last ones. This is extremely common on old figures, and should almost be considered the ‘rule’ when viewing old period pieces of jade. While there are always exceptions, and some 100% original items do exist, almost all truly old jades have had some degree of re-cutting and re-polishing. The reason for this is that nephrite jade (even being the ‘toughest’ stone) will still wear, and all old pieces received wear. It was common in the old days to not deeply cut grooves and designs, and even if items were pierced, the fine lines we see on the designs were never cut that deeply. So, we have wear from minor dusting over long periods, wear to toggles and jewelry from use, wear from fondling, and wear from degradation and tectonic movement in burials, etc. Wear on old artifacts is what one would expect to see. In the photographs above, the newest tooling marks, probably dating back to around the 1950′s, are rather crude and were done with a coarse abrasive, as it must have been planned to only heighten the effect of the design, while knowing that the new waxes would hide all indications of such re-working (which they did). Other re-tooling was done at an earlier date but by someone with a much subtler touch and finer tooling knowledge. These second tooling marks were most likely done when the damaged jade figure was first fixed with the black lacquer. It is in the extreme whiteness of the marks in the photos above that we can see the newer work – new scratches look white no matter the color of the jade or jadeite being worked, and unless coated or polished away, will always appear white. With oiling and care and light polishing over time, even these scratches will disappear with wear (as the oils applied now have done, while still keeping the stone ‘alive’).
In the three photographs above, we are looking at a small portion at the top of the Courtesan’s belt, just above what would have been a jade ‘Bi’ style decoration. The black piece we see in the center of the first photo is where a small piece of jade had come off, most likely in the event which damaged the Courtesan. As we are looking through the photographs, we can start to see the tight fibering of the nephrite as previously described, and while it is not uncommon for even 2,000-year-old pieces to have had natural, minuscule cracks that have up-taken surrounding minerals from burial, and still remained intact, this Courtesan was, at one time, subjected to a huge amount of pressure in order for it to have shattered like it did. As described earlier, this figure was made from an extremely fine nephrite specimen, and while it could have had some natural, minute fissures from its long tumbling down either the White or Black Jade Rivers, it would not have had this type of pressure cracks and still been able to withstand the formation process, from boulder to finished work. Most of these cracks came long after the piece was finished, and from a source of blunt trauma to the bottom of the Courtesan. The nephrite itself shows almost no chatoyancy, and it could have had undetected layering from when the nephrite was first formed and then cooled. The fact that this stone took such heavy pressure damage, and did not shatter some of the finer detail work, attests to the remarkable quality of the original nephrite stone. To sustain such damage to the bottom portion, in my view, would be equivalent to someone dropping the figure from a five story building onto a solid rock surface. Despite whatever caused the damage that led to the need for the old lacquer repairs, the figure’s minute fractures have held together remarkably, and perhaps for as long as 500 years.
In the first picture above, we can also see the newest tooling marks easily as the whitish area just to the top of the replaced black piece, as we can in the re-grooved areas at the top of the belt. Two more interesting features which we can discern are the remains of the original Ming- period coarser grit marks (in the original grooving at the bottom of photo three), and the remnants of very old, clear wax in chipped-out areas around the black spot and other lacquer repairs in the lower left of the bottom photo. This old wax is most likely from the period of the Qing Dynasty when the Courtesan was first lightly re-cut and re-polished. This we will see in following microscopic photos showing only the fine details being re-cut, with no signs at all of re-polishing marks on the main portions of the figure.
In the above three photographs, we are looking at the old lacquer-glue stabilization to the cracked portion of a fold in the Courtesan’s dress that finally broke off completely in recent times, and was re-glued back on when we first received the figure for authentication. Old lacquer glues are never effected by acetone, or any other solvent we have ever tried. We have repaired this area (as can be seen in the second photo, at the beginning of this article) with Paleo Bond, and it is extremely secure, but can still be removed for examination. It would be our best observation that even this slight break took a blunt force trauma to finish breaking it the rest of the way, as it appears that the stone was still very secure by the way the break had occurred, and the fact that the old lacquer glue never penetrated the old crack very deeply, as it has in some of the other cracks on the bottom; in fact, some of the lacquer is missing from the deeper cracks, most likely due to long-time wear, popping out of the cracks (not from acetone cleaning, and not from abrasives).
In the three photographs above, we will start to see more of the true indicators of Ming Dynasty age, and the fibrous density of the grey/white Khotan-Hetian nephrite that held this masterpiece together through such trauma. The latest re-cutting marks do not appear on this portion of the fine hair lines at the top of the Courtesan. There are a few minor, recent re-cut marks to a couple of the fingers on this figure in an attempt to re-make some of her fingernails, but most of the fingers and hair marks were left alone. With the fingers, they were just too fine and worn to put new marks on, and the last person who worked on this marvelous piece lacked the skill of the ancients. In photo one above, we see true old wear and true “old polish”, in the fact that when these hair lines were re-cut, they were gently done in the old style, leaving the tips of the original Ming Dynasty marks untouched. Many true, old master restorers would always leave areas untouched for the real experts in China to know whether the piece they were touching was authentic. Chinese experts for thousands of years have been able to tell by touch and feel alone if a piece is authentic, and it is why it is said in China, “you must have touched a thousand real pieces to be an expert”. You can identify in the above photographs the approximate late Qing Dynasty re-cutting marks by their still-white appearance, and the original tooling marks by their much softer appearance. The Qing re-cuts are already starting to naturally polish out, but the Ming dynasty marks have aged (even though not fully polished out originally) with the rest of the stone. The tiny tips of the remaining hair lines are naturally polished out from wear over time. In the bottom two photographs above we can see at 20X and 30X microscopic power how one line was deep enough originally to not be considered necessary to re-groove; however, the line above must have been shallower to begin with, and needed a bit of re-cutting. We can also see how the older line has polished out more naturally, over centuries of handling and cleaning. The two different grooves, from both periods, would have looked very similar to begin with, but at different times.
We find in this same general area with the hair lines, a wonderfully in-situ area showing what authentic Ming Dynasty wear should look like after 500 years as a revered item, not showing any signs of burial degradation. In the first photograph, taken at 10X microscopic power, we can still some of the later Qing Dynasty tooling marks where the whitened areas are, to the right of the photo. In the second and third photos (taken at higher magnifications), we see only the original Ming Dynasty tooling marks and all the natural wear that they have incurred over the centuries. It is in this area that we can see that the original period grooves were not as deep as those we find in modern pieces, using modern diamond cutting tools. The cuts are much softer and more rounded. This is why the later Qing masters would re-cut some of the grooves – to show the piece better – and why they re-cut and re-polished old burial jades, as old burial jade starts to look like river rocks from the degradation incurred from internment; in short, to make the stone shine again and bring out the details, while still leaving the original design intact. The pitting inside the groove of the partial hair line is as natural as it gets for an unburied Ming Dynasty original tooling mark – showing authentic wear and natural pitting of the nephrite from the salts and acids associated with touch from human hands. This piece has seen no acid-etching, no high-alkaline-etching, and no attempt at torching to make the Courtesan look old and degraded. It is truly old and has all the markings of an authentic, worn, revered item of the high aristocracy, in which even the damaged areas were repaired and revered, and if it could talk, what a story it could tell!
In the three photographs above, we are seeing two different types of black applications and two different periods of tooling marks. The area photographed is an original drill hole in the finely carved ribbons, towards the viewer’s left side, bottom of the dress on this magnificent Courtesan figure. The black spot in the middle of this recently re-cut hole appears to be of the same type of black lacquer, still left over from the ancient repair that we see at the bottom of each photo, but it is not. The top black spot is part of the later Qing Dynasty restoration, which will be better explained in the three photographs to follow. The main aspect of these three photos is the extremely white new tooling marks from the recent (maybe 50 year old) re-cutting, and the original Ming Dynasty tooling marks, covered in the original black lacquer from when this exquisite figure was repaired hundreds of years ago. There is a marked difference, as can easily be seen, between the new re-cutting marks and the original deep grooves from the coarse grits used to drill this hole some 500 years ago. We can easily see the much more rounded grooves of an old original tooling method, worked slowly with the coarser grit material, under much slower drilling speeds. In the last re-cut, we can see they just missed this portion, but the method used for drilling was with coarse grits at a much higher speed. This is what has left the whitened tooling marks, and the more ‘shattered’ look to the nephrite surface. Both the black spot in the middle and the remaining Ming Dynasty marks are in deeper depressions and survived the new re-cutting.
In the three photographs above, we are looking at an area on the finely-made ‘feather fan’ the Courtesan is holding in her right hand. It is quite apparent under microscopic conditions that this area was re-grooved in the later Qing Dynasty, as can be seen easiest (by the newer whitish grooves of the feathers) in the first two photos at 10X and 20X respectively. The black in the horizontal groove just below the feather cuts is the same type of black paint that was shown in the last photographs above as the little black spot in the center of the drill hole. This was most likely an attempt at ‘artistic license’ to highlight the feathers of the fan and other areas of the Courtesan. It would have made a beautiful contrast to the originally black lacquered repairs, and helped to attract one’s eyes to the details of this fine sculpture, while averting them from the cracks and flaws, balancing the appearance of the figure. The black addition from the Qing Period proved to be very ‘fugitive’ however, and very little of it remains on the figure, with most of it on the fan. The black lacquer, however, has remained, as true black lacquer will, unless abraded away. It is in the last of the above photos that we can once again see an original, worn tooling mark of the Ming Dynasty period, in the tip of the feather to the viewer’s left, closest to where it almost meets the black-painted line (taken at 30X microscopic power). The nephritic structure of the jade can be easily defined, and the wear and pitting of the approximately 500 year-old original tooling marks can be readily identified.
The last four photographs are showing an original Ming Dynasty coarse drilling mark under 10X-20X-30X and 45X microscopic power in succession. Only in the first photograph can we see the recent re-cutting marks going around a depression in the design. Starting with photograph number two at 20X power, we see only the old natural degradation to a coarse-grit drilling mark that stood the test of time and remained visible after hundreds of years of wear and loving attention to this fine Ming Dynasty Period carving. The reason for the deeper groove in these last photos is that ‘damage zones’ were not really well-understood in the old carvers’ art. It is true that some periods (stretching back through China’s 10,000+ year illustrious history of carving nephrite jade) were more adept at carving and polishing of jades than others. Another fact is that some carvers were just better than others (as in all things human), and also sometimes a piece had to be finished more quickly than others because of an impending death, or some other time-related reason. However, ‘damage zones’ appear in almost all pieces, from all ages. This is due to the fact that when using the harder, coarser grits that it takes to abrade nephrite jade (the only way it can be worked), the heavier grits damage the micro-structure of the nephrite beneath the carving on a molecular and atomic level. When a piece is worked in finer grits, these micro-damaged sub-surfaces appear to be polished, but are in fact not polished clear through the damaged areas. Many new artists understand this principle and will stop the heavier grits much sooner, and let the finer grits remove these damage zones. These damage zones were sometimes left in old carvings (more so in some periods and less in others), but they are the parts that always start to degrade first whether or not a piece has seen burial. This is what causes the pitted look in old tooling marks (along with acids and salts from human handling). Even in old Neolithic pieces, the reason why the tooling marks can often be seen is that they start degrading prior to the smoother polished surfaces. In the photos above, we see a natural degradation occurring to an old Ming Dynasty tool mark; not faked and not replicated.
In closing, this magnificent Ming Dynasty Period Courtesan has certainly seen her day, and has gracefully withstood the test of time and massive trauma that even the most beloved of jadeites could never have tolerated; they would have been shattered to pieces. This is the reason the original “Stone of Heaven” will never be replaced, in the view of many of us, and why it was chosen for the backs of the most recent Olympic medals – when dropped before the Chairman of The People’s Republic of China, the jadeite slab shattered and the nephrite jade just bounced.
David Fredericks – Yulongwei