Jade Through The Ages Show 2010

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show

Full House At The Grand Opening - Jade Through The Ages Show 2010

Warren Rees (left) One of America's Earliest Carvers Shows His Wyoming Jade Carvings

With the advent of our change in name from Jade Art Now to Jade Through The Ages to better reflect the diversity of the show, and the economic depression reflected throughout the entire Tucson Gem Show, our Jade Through The Ages Show equaled in sales volume our best show to date. Many attendees commented it was the finest, professional and most pleasant show to date, truly reflecting the theme of Jade Through The Ages.

Georg Schmerholz Shows Fellow Jadeite Artist Hnin Eindani One of His Creations

Kirk & Mrs. Makepeace With Georg After The Unveiling Of "The Buffalo" With Polar Jade Horns

Georg Schmerholz made quite a showing with his sculptures again this year and showing his mastery of working even the hardest to carve stones with this ‘very present’ buffalo with large and extremely hard to carve “Polar Jade” incorporating even the white degradation veining along with the more familiar, translucent wonder of one of the Makepeace’s ‘world ‘renowned’ Polar from their Jade Mine opperation.

Peter Schilling 'Talks Jade' With One Of The Hundreds That Attended Opening Night

Dante Lopez of Cancun Shows Dr. Lin His Guatemalan Pure Translucent Blue & Green Jadeite

Both Peter Schilling of Taking Form Jade and Dante Lopez of Studio Dante were extremely successful at this years show as were all of the artists which participated. So many exemplary artistic impressions were displayed at this years show from all the attendees. The quantity and quality of the carvings and hand finishing was in a word – astounding.

Tom Finneran Shows A Guest His Marvelous Creations

Justin Barrett Of "Just in Jade" Talks Jade Collecting With Kirk Makepeace

Hnin Eindani Third Generation Jadeite Carver & Steve Stegall of A Gathering Of Spirits Gallery

Surrounded by Eleven Old Jade and Jadeite Collections from across the United States and bronze, jadeite, wood, quartz and pottery from China, Burma, India, and Africa along-with Pre-Columbian Artifacts in separate galleries gave everyone a night to remember and a great sense of the timelessness of art and religious importance.

David Fredericks & Dr. Lin Inspecting Jade Vases From The Last Two Timeless Jade Articles

Start Of The Jade Through The Ages Show 2010

We sincerely wish to thank all the artists who worked so hard to make this years show a success with a special thank you to Mr. John Snook of  John’s Jades of Casper Wyoming (who has been mining and carving Jade for almost 50 years) for his special pieces donated for show at the gallery, and to Camaraderie Cellars for the wonderful case of fine red wines provided for the Opening Night. We also thank all of the collections that were added to the Fredericks-McIntire Collection of Archaic and Archaistic Jades and associated stone and gem pieces. Also a special thanks (you all know who you are) for your support of the Artists, the Gala Opening and the Annual Dinner.

Lee Speights - Horse Form Pendant Of Wyoming Black Nephrite

Part Of The White Jadeite Figures - Shamrock Estate Collection - Acquired Pre-1946

Old Collections Represented:

Fredericks-McIntire Collection

Kim Stewert Collection

Ronald Edwin Prosser Estate Collection

K. C. Bell Collection

Ang Estate Collection

Chernysh Estate Collection

Sam Gitchel Collection

Shamrock Estate Collection

Craig & Kathy Bowdoin Collection

Jane Slosser Collection

Jim Campbell Family Collection

More fine pictures of the Show and it’s Participants will be posted on  http://jadethroughtheages.com soon.

David Fredericks — Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

Late Eastern Zhao Period Royal Funeral Vessel

Transitional Re-Polished Grey Nephrite

Lidded Vessel

Originally with Total ‘Calcification’

Later Clear Lacquer Repair On Inside Leg Of Lid Top

Inside Macro Photo Of Dragon Mouth At 3X Macro

Above Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 Lens

The above two photographs were both taken with the Canon Macro lens with the top photo at 1x and the bottom photo at 3X.  Other than the finer, secondary re-polishing marks, the top photo shows the main evidence of a second restoration of the vessel. The clear lacquer repair to the once cracked nephrite jade is the only repair of its type on either the top or the bottom of the lidded vessel. This later, clear lacquer repair also occurs just underneath where the finer (whiter looking) secondary re-polishing marks are, and is only about one inch long. The first black lacquer repairs held the nephrite lid together tightly during the second burial, which we estimate at being approximately four hundred years. The reason for the close approximation for the secondary burial is due to the high possibility that this vessel was found at least in the Ming Dynasty Period and re-cut and re-polished through the deep degradation that had occurred under burial up until that time. The initial cracks on the lid and vessel were fixed during this time period with the black lacquer glue, in all the areas that were exposed from the re-polishing. Most likely this vessel was revered during this period, and then re-buried along with the ‘treasures’ of the owner during his internment. Having been later uncovered, the jade had degraded to a slightly greater degree (which precipitated the second, light re-polishing we see), and an initial crack was found during the second re-polishing which required the application of the clear lacquer glue to stabilize the area. In the second photograph above we can see under 3x of the Macro lens the tongue of the main Dragon and the still in-situ tip, which, as before, would have been considered too fragile to re-polish. The area on the side of the tongue appears to have tree roots attached from the second burial, but in fact they are areas of wax from the Ming Dynasty cleaning and polishing that have shrunk in size and ‘rippled’ into a shape resembling a tree-root track. The dust that remains is from the third burial, and had attached to the fresh wax of the second re-polishing, and in turn became part of the surface. This can easily be removed with a good scraping of the surface, but we chose to retain it for the eventual re-sale of the vessel, its removal to be preformed in front of the new owners, if so desired by them.

Area Of Old Black Lacquer Glue Repair to Lid

Old Black Lacquer Repair Running Through Degraded Jade

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

The two photographs above were both taken (as were all microscopic photos for this article) at 35X Magnification. This magnification keeps the pictures consistent and all that is needed for verification of the vessel can be found at this power and lower. In the upper photograph we can clearly see how the jade had cracked along the side of the lid (where this picture was taken) in Part Two of this three-part article. The old re-polishing marks can be distinguished from the newer light polishing by the pitting that occurs inside the horizontal degraded marks. Also, the general degradation to the jade around the initial black lacquer repair stands out in the waviness on the surface of the jade lid itself. When originally re-polished down through the deep degradation from the first burial, this area was cleaned and the lacquer glue applied and left to harden as it will in a moist environment between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, completely changing its chemical composition to the phenomenal glue that it is. After the glue hardened to their specifics, the vessel would have received a final ‘finish’ polish at a high number grit and would have appeared, after their waxing, to be shiny and almost new (minus the surrounding through-degradation). However, the first parts to start to degrade again would have been any soft areas and the remaining small sub-suface ‘damage zones’ from the recent re-polish. Even in so minute an area as the final high grit polish, the sub-surface to the nephrite jade is microscopically damaged and will be the first places new degradation will begin. This is why we get the secondary ‘bumpy’ surface look as the second re-polishing removes this thin degraded area. In the second photo above we can see an area where the first re-polishing never reached through to the beautiful grey nephrite in an area where the degradation from the original burial went too deep, and possibly all the way through the vessel. The lacquer glue in this crack shows up in stark contrast to the degraded jade surrounding it, and actually sticks out a bit from the surface, while the photograph sometimes makes it look like it is recessed. The old nephrite continued to degrade but the lacquer glue did not, as is the case even in glues of this sort that were originally used over three thousand years ago, as lacquer glue is impervious to water and other solvents in burial conditions. The only thing we have observed which could be called a weakness of this type of glue is that it will crack from sudden sideways shock, as it also appears to become more brittle the longer it cures.

Old Lacquer Repair Running Through Rough Re-Polished Area

Tip Of Original Degraded Tongue On Main Dragon Of Vessel

Two Photos Above Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

In the first photo above we can see one of the original, old black lacquer repairs to a crack in the vessel lid, which is in a place under the dragon on the lid . It must not have been deemed necessary on the second re-polishing of the vessel and lid to re-polish this portion, which is not-so- visible on inspection from the outside. In this photograph we can see, in the white portions that were not re-polished off during the second re-cleaning of the vessel, the old lacquer repair and the consequent degradation (calcification) from secondary burial. Also, the pitting that has occurred to the nephrite jade is quite evident at 35 X power under the microscope, as are the nephritic fibers of the original jade. The brown staining on this and other parts of the vessel result from the first re-polishing and will readily come off, as the old staining has adhered to the nephrite over the years since it was first applied as an ‘antiquating’ technique which has been used on re-polished funeral items for hundreds of years. There are times when this brown antiquating method will not be removed due to the depth it has penetrated the nephrite and the time it has been allowed to remain on the stone, and thus becomes a permanent part of the living sculpture. In the lower picture we find the tip of the 100% in-situ tongue, which amazingly has stayed intact as have all the tips of the teeth of the dragons on both the vessel and the lid. These were surely deemed too fragile to re-cut and re-polish, and obviously remain in their current condition because of the foresight of those who were performing the two separate re-polishings. Degradation on the these areas is almost totally complete and runs through the entire tips of these protrusions. Once again we find the brown wax used to polish the vessel after the first repair, re-cut and re-polish. Some of this could be carefully removed for the original end-buyer of the vessel, but in this case it actually adds to the overall look of the finished piece, and under normal lighting it does not take on the more darkened look as it does here under 35X magnification. To remove some of the brown would be to take a risk in breaking these degraded tips which in our opinion is not worth the attempt, unless it were performed entirely by chemical means, with no sanding or pressure of any kind. Also, at this magnification, the tip appears to have taken on a ’rounded’ look, but at normal viewing the tip appears pointed, as it was when it was first made.

First Re-Polishing Marks, Approximately Ming Dynasty Period

Second Re-Polishing Marks Over Old Ming Period Degraded Tooling

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

In the above two photograph we can now identify two entirely separate portions of the vessel which show both re-polishings that have been performed to date. In the upper photograph we we find the first re-polishing that was performed approximately 500 years ago, and has since worn away and pitted. Looking closely we can see the vertical polishing marks, after the vessel was roughly polished to remove most of the deep, white degradation. Over the years following, the conditions of burial were most assuredly drier than the conditions of the previous two thousand two hundred years or more, evidenced by the fact that the nephrite jade did not degrade to anywhere near the point that it had previously. This is not to say it didn’t degrade in some places (which it did), just that it was a drier burial, and some parts of the vessel received more moisture than others, presumably because of how it was protected during the second burial. In this top picture we find a rare spot that had been kept relatively dry and thus did not degrade into the ‘calcified’ white we so often see, and as such it gives us a tremendous photograph of what approximately 500 year-old polishing marks look like, in the way they have pitted yet still retain their vertical grooves from the re-polishing. To the viewer’s bottom right in the photograph, we can see that some of the original degradation had worked its way through the entire vessel, causing the first cleaner to stop at this point, as going farther would not have shown the beautiful grey jade off any more, but only detracted by going through the vessel and leaving a hole. In the second photograph we can see evidence of the same pitted first re-polishings, but in another area more accessible to the second person attempting the re-polish work. The secondary re-polishing marks stand out in stark contrast to the older polishing marks, as they are much more ‘fresh’ in nature and leave the tell-tale whitish marks of newer cut-and-polished jades. In the middle of the photograph we find the best evidence of the earlier polishing that clearly matches that which is in the first photo above, and the whiter/newer scratches around it. At the top of the second photograph can also be viewed the mostly-in-situ degradation which runs so deeply through the sides of the original vessel.

Original Period Tooling Marks Under Nose Of Main Dragon

Secondary White Lacquer Repair At 35X Magnification

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

In the uppermost of the two above photographs we can now see the earliest tooling marks still showing on this magnificent vessel. These are the original tooling marks left from the drilling of the groove under the nose of the large Dragon on the main portion of the vessel. These deep grooves were created as new heavy grit was added during the final ‘roughing-out’ stage of the vessel, and can clearly be seen in both the darkened waxed area and the sides. This is what we would call ‘damage zone’ degradation, as the heavier grit crushes the micro-structure of the nephrite below the surface, and tends to degrade and wear-out there first. This is one of the main reasons we feel a very late Warring States Period dating  is justified for the vessel; however, it could also be of early Han Dynasty Vintage. What we find in the Royal pieces of the late Warring States Period is a ‘rougher’ original polish to the vessel itself, and especially in the tight areas where it was hardest to reach. The Royal Vessels of this period are extremely difficult to differentiate from their early Han Dynasty ‘cousins’, because a Royal piece is not a common Eastern Zhou Period subject, but one that was made for Royalty, and as such, the time and execution, choice of stone, and manner of polish would have been of the highest standard. However, when comparing those of the Warring States Period to those of the Han Dynasty, we find a finer polishing in the tighter grooves and harder-to-access places on the vessels, and even though the marvelously pierced tail of the dragon on the lid of the vessel would definitely suggest a Han Dynasty dating, we feel it is more in the smaller details that we find the true age of the vessel, as will be seen in subsequent photos. Since we are only speaking of a transitional period of perhaps as short as 50 years, this makes the exact dating of the vessel rather difficult, and we have to rely on what we see through the microscope and that which (as was described in an earlier section of this three-part series) the vessel tells us by the old Chinese method of ‘feel’. In the second photograph above, we find the definitive color of the second ‘white’ lacquer repair under 35X magnification. It is almost certain this color was chosen for the second repair as it was inside a foot on the lid of the vessel, and more closely resembled the color of the degraded jade and the surrounding material. It is not a ‘worn-off’ piece of lacquer glue where the dark has been removed, as the original dark lacquer from the initial repair was purposefully made blacker to match the darker grey of the jade, and was even used over the white parts of the jade. It also shows signs of  having been sanded or re-polished (as can be seen in the first photograph of this third part of the series). Additionally, it appears to have been ’squeezed into’ the crack that had developed over the years, with much care and very little over-flow. This repair is from a totally different period, which we would discern to be approximately four hundred years after the initial black lacquer repair, and was most likely a repair to a slight crack that had ‘given way’ during the second burial of the vessel. It is interesting to note that some of the cracks in the Chinese burial nephrite jades, by the nature of some types of jade from the Khotan area, can reach one sixteenth of an inch or wider, and still maintain their integrity and not crack all the way through, but rather follow a pattern presumably laid down as the jade was cooling (as we often find nephrite from this area with a highly layered effect, to be shown in a subsequent article).

100% In-Situ Tooling Marks From Original Manufacture - Inside Legs of Lid

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100% In-Situ Tooling Marks From Original Tooling of the Dragon Vessel - Inside Legs of Lid

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

In both of the above photographs we find two separate areas underneath the Dragon on the top of the lid where no re-polishing has taken place in either the first or the second time this vessel was removed from burial, and re-cut and re-polished. In both photos, all that can be seen are the original drilling marks which made the underside of the Dragon on the lid. The amount of wear and degradation these original tooling marks have seen over time is extremely evident as small grooves in the drilling got much wider and deeper over time, as the thawing and freezing occurred and the grooves progressively wore away. As mentioned above, this is more indicative of later Warring States attention-to-detail in most vessels for High Royalty. However, there are several anomalies of which one needs to be careful in determining which case scenario is most likely. First: for High Royalty, would be the case for how long the person was expected to live. In the case of younger Royalty, given an acceptable degree of similar quality workmanship, the longer the Royal lived, the more time that would have been available for the artists to exact the finest quality of workmanship, from the beginning in the working of the stone, down to the final steps of polishing. (Indeed, I find it the hardest to determine smaller pieces finished and polished by a master, that have undergone dramatic changes during burial – such as the Bi written about here in the TimelessJade.com article “Incredible Oxidized Warring States Period Bi – 100% In-Situ). Similarly, if a Royal personage was not of the best of health, adequate time to perform the exacting precision needed to make certain types of vessels (using such primitive tooling techniques, when compared to contemporary methods), to the degree of standards as for one who lived to an old age, would just not have been there. In some of these vessels we see a more ‘hurried’ approach to certain areas, such as the insides of the vessels where the core drilling marks were not fully polished, out and the general ‘detailing’ of the vessel may not have been quite up to par, given the shortened time periods involved. Second:  the case that not all artists are as ‘gifted’ in the final two stages of crafting of a vessel – the master carving of a roughed-out piece and the final degree of polishing. We see this same scenario throughout all of history, and it is why a masterpiece of any period depends also on these things mentioned. Third: this case lies in the stone itself;  it has always boggled us how much good quality stone came into the area most populated during these times of strife, such as the Warring States Period, when it is very clear that at other times of unsettlement of government and territories in China’s past, the supply of this stone did not flow nearly as well as we see in this surrounding period of perhaps 500 years. Given the amount of turmoil that occurred in this era, from the middle of the Warring States Period through the Western Han Dynasty, it is quite remarkable that nephrite jade of such quality and quantity was still able to cross the many borders it had to traverse, from the Turkanistan Region through to the more civilized areas of China.

Re-Cut & Re-Polished 'Feather' On Dragon With In-Situ 'Missed Portion'

Second Missed Re-Cut & Re-Polished Feather on Dragon

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under35X Microscopic Power

In the above two photographs we can see two different areas where the ‘feathers’ were re-cut on the Dragon’s legs. It is often in parts like these where we will find some of the only true remaining vestiges of an original jade. While following the outline (sometimes drawn on) the person who is doing the re-cuting of a design will lift his wheel just a bit short of the exact ending of an old and original cut. This leaves us with a wonderful opportunity to explore in depth the two differing tooling marks. In these areas we can often determine the type of tool and technology that was used to do the re-cutting, and also a marvelous opportunity to study the original degradation left in the part missed during the new re-cutting. In the top photograph we can see where just a small amount of re-cutting occurred along an edge where the feather was tapering off, as they do towards the top and bottom of the feathering technique. Just below the white degraded portion seen in the photograph is the remainder of the original degraded feather. As we travel up and at an angle, we start to see the new grinding-wheel marks go off upwards and sideways from the remains of the pitted-out old original tooling marks. In the last photograph of  two feathers, we can see the approximately 500 year-old re-cuts, and the same fine sanding that has now started to degrade away, as the pitting in the old sanding-marks betrays. Towards the bottom of the picture there is even a small black/metallic piece of manganese, which appears to have been growing since the vessel was in its original burial, and was missed when the re-polishing was done all those years ago. Most likely this piece of manganese started when inside the degraded feather, and it was just a bit of luck that this particle prevailed.

[For our next article we are going to do another of our large vessels from the Eastern Zhao Period, which should prove to be a nice 'eye-opener' for those who enjoy this type of investigation. We will continue after that with more articles on different types of Nephrite and Jadeite under microscopic conditions, with a few wonderful smaller jades and their replicated counterparts, side by side.]

David Fredericks  –  Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

Late Eastern Zhao Period Royal Funeral Vessel

Transitional Re-Polished Grey Nephrite

Lidded Vessel

Originally with Total ‘Calcification’

Large Lidded Warring States Grey Nephrite Dragon Vessel

Inside View of Re-Polished Grey Nephrite Vessel, Approx. 2,300 Years Old

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

In continuation of our last article, we return to the degraded original vessel most likely made for a King in the Late Warring States period (475 – 221 BCE). We do not use the term ‘Made for a King’ lightly. We examine the vessel and type of jade used and preferred by Royalty of the particular era. Stylistic analysis is well-defined in the many fine publications on jade that have graced the shelves for years, with refinements being added with every certified archeological dig that creeps out (using this word because of the often extremely slow nature of publication from discovery to enough acceptance of anything ‘controversial’).  It is well-documented that the Kings (there were no Emperors at this time) in the Warring States Period were extremely fond of my personal favorite nephrite, the finely grained and flowing-textured translucent white jade, or Ying yu as it is called in China. This led to the later ‘Mutton Fat’ white jade of the Han Dynastic preference – although we have personally seen just as many Han Dynasty translucent white pieces as we have seen mutton fat, and believe the ’so called’ preference to be more of a story that was repeated enough till it started being held as truth, such as the misconception of Rhinoceros horn being used as an aphrodisiac, when in fact it was the preferred medicine for headaches. This particular dark grey nephrite jade we find in the main subject of this article, as far as we can research, is much more rare than the white jade (as is also Black Jade and Yellow Jade, and in our experience, the rarest of all – the Dark Grey with the copper alloy causing the true “Blood” Jade, known to have been found in the Warring States Period). Design-wise, this is one of the only vessels we have ever seen that does not portray a Feng Huang (Red Bird of the South) on it. While both the Dragon and the Fenghuang have been well-documented as symbols of Royalty on religious artifacts long before the Han Dynastic Period (note that some older publications give this dating as the ‘birth’ of the Royal symbols), this fantastic lidded vessel only shows the Dragon in many of its then-known forms. We would take this to be an almost certain sign of exclusively Male Royalty, as indicated by the lack of the Fenghuang or any other motif, such as the often prevalent Taotei that adorns so many fine vessels in Jade, Pottery and Bronze throughout millennia. The original vessel, having far too deep degradation to have even a remote possibility of being a Ming Dynasty piece, even in the worst imaginable possible burial conditions, is left to scholars of these large types of ritual vessels to be either a Western Han or a late Warring States Sacred Vessel (and most that truly know old jades will say Han; the rest, we do not really care about – not meaning to be pompous here – they just forgot to keep learning, and lacked the large real vessels and their fake counterparts to study in depth). While all indications, which will be mentioned and shown, truly place this masterfully worked vessel in a Han Dynasty context, we will offer our opinion as to why it should be placed more neatly in the Late Warring States era, as these ‘True’ type of large vessels have only been found in the Late Eastern Zhao Period, the Han Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.

Inside View Of Warring States Vessel Showing Through-Degradation

Inside View Of Lid Showing Through-Degradation And Lacquer Repair

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

In old burial jades, the first thing any true professional (one who knows and has touched enough real items) will do is ‘feel’ the jade. Jade under such inspection, as most people know, feels cool to the touch. What most people have never heard is that it will also ‘rob’ the heat from your body and is best felt by softly touching the jade with one’s finger and feeling the jade ’steal’ the heat from the skin surface where the finger touches. It is a subtle sensation, to be sure, but it is easily mastered with a little quiet and very little practice. From that initial feeling of the stone, one then looks for signs of decomposition of the nephrite itself from burial conditions. This is sometimes extremely easy to see and sometimes it is almost impossible to see, if the jade has been re-polished very throughly, and had been in a very corrosive environment. Some tombs were composed of naturally acidic or alkaline soils, and some were in wetter or dryer environments. Without having been there at the actual time of removal from the soil, and knowing that many pieces had been re-cut and re-polished more than once, and buried more than once, as mentioned before, one must then assess by the object alone, the likely course of events and conditions which have occurred to the item from the time the piece was first made until the present moment when it’s being viewed and studied. This is where it truly takes a professional (whether academic or private), and it takes someone who has handled enough genuine pieces, from in-situ items to all stages and techniques of restoration, and who knows the techniques used to replicate archaic and archaistic jades for centuries. [The hardest thing we ever experienced years ago while learning this, when we were making the discoveries that are to be freely shared on this site, was to find a person with true knowledge and without a personal agenda of some sort -that person was never found, and so, we had to do all of it on our own through literally thousands of hours under microscopic conditions, over years' time.] In the two photographs above we find possibly the easiest determining factor of age, and one about which the least is written. In through-degradation of jade is found one of the greatest determining factors of ancient jades. It is when a real professional holds a piece of our collection and those we represent, and without prompting, takes the piece to bright light and looks at this through-transmission of light, just on a small edge; then we know we have a professional (whether declared or not), in our midst. [This is for you, Peter.] As many know, nephrite is one of the ‘toughest’ stones on the planet – what not very many know is that it is not wholly homogenous, and its subtleties and porosity are rarely discussed. Yet, it is in this porosity and nonhomogeneity that lies the true nature of nephrite jade, and the ability to ascertain burial age by degradation of the stone itself, and get a glimpse of the conditions sustained by an object of burial of nearly any length of time. When we see degradation that travels through the jade sideways to such a great depth, as seen above, we know there were times of high moisture and some corrosive soil mixture to have caused such a deep pitting in the object. It begins small, as in all things, with minute degradation of the ‘weaker’ portions of the nephrite, and continues to grow inwards and expand outwards, as time, conditions, and moisture continue to provide a conducive environment. We have seen the same effect on obvious burial items which almost certainly got their ’start’ with the well-known excretion of body fluids and their acidic reactions to the ancient jade; however, in the case of this vase it would be a most unlikely cause, as such an item of reverence would not be placed directly on the body of the deceased, and most likely not be proximal enough to the enclosed confines of the casket and liner. With this deep degradation we see almost no chance of this vessel being a cave burial artifact, and much more in line with the types of burials we find from the Warring States Period (as in the construction of the Marquis Xi’s tomb) and those of the Qin Dynasty and Western Han Dynastic Period. Another note along this vein which we have never seen discussed is the through-degradation of a lidded vessel as compared to one that has been next to it that is not lidded, as the lidded one will undoubtably hold moisture longer and degrade quicker and further than a non-lidded vessel, given that the tomb was not entirely flooded.

Area Of Oldest Lacquer Repair On The Lid Of The Vessel

Above Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using Ef 24-70mm f/2.8L Lens

With this last photo using our regular lens, and before going into the Macro and Microscopic Photographs, we wish to discuss some of the peculiar aspects of this significant vessel, including its magnificent styling and unusual size. Starting with the size, most Museums (including China’s most prominent) and private collections have never had the opportunity to own the old sacred vessels of this size, or larger, and as such have a very hard time believing these magnificent vessels truly exist. The fact of the matter is they not only exist but are fairly common within the Chinese Museum sphere of knowledge and collections. Approximately two and one half years ago, Dr Timothy Jones PhD., who works alongside us, was invited to Beijing Museum by staff for a visit. During his stay with the Museum, he was introduced to several rooms in which were kept the older and rarer vessels (such as the  Blood Jade vessels we have) that are not normally on display to the public. These are considered extremely sacred vessels, and are just not on display for public viewing. This does not mean they do not exist – simply put, they are highly revered, and are not part of the mainstream of knowledge concerning burial jades in particular. While we personally have some vessels much larger than this that are indeed jade and authentic, it is not as much a mystery as some would believe. They did, and they still do exist, and when the Chinese Professionals come to see our vessels, it is not with incredulity that they stand, but rather in awe of the piece itself, given the time frame of their creation and the sacred manner in which they were used. Some of these large vessels are in almost in-situ condition, and others have been repaired, but all the authentic ones are just that, and the replications were made from these tremendous originals. There were some that were originally made from separate pieces fitted together, and some where the original stone was large enough to accommodate the entire massive vessel. The most amazing thing to us, aside from the tremendous amount of labor that went into their creation, is the sheer time and effort involved in their transport; the distances traveled and manpower and supplies needed just to move the stones from the Turkanistan region of that time, and bring them to those various artisans who imagined their final awe-inspiring designs, and who worked the stone into those sacred creations so long ago, is almost inconceivable. In addition, this will be the only occasion that we will discuss the vague particulars of how we came by the vast majority of the major portion of our collection (as the particulars are really no one’s business but those from whom we obtained the pieces, and ourselves). In short, they were acquired through trust. The longer version as is already known to a few valuable ‘family’ members, is that it took years to develop the trust necessary for the collecting and the ability to hold on to the collection for study and disbursement. Through sincerity, caring, sharing, and steadfast discipline, we were allowed to gather, as time went by, more and larger items and keep them in our possession. By the exact same disciplines as that of any ‘official’ representatives that knew of our work and true intentions, we have remained ‘centered and true’. We are also no longer collecting any items, in accordance with the UNESCO Treaty laws, and are only procuring the newest of modern replications from China, as must be done to keep up with the ever-excelling methods of their production. It is with this sharing and the caring that both our ‘Antiquities, Plus…’ web site and this ‘Timeless Jade’ site were established, and any words spoken to the contrary are not of concern to either us or the exemplary people we have dealt with, either here or across the Pacific. It is not and never will be our intention to become wealthy from the collection, but only to share the knowledge and the proceeds to those who truly need it, in accordance with our ‘agreements’ and goals. We will forever keep only that portion which we need to survive under common conditions, and we do not consider private jets, mansions, or fancy automobiles to be part of that concept. That being said, we will continue with the photo above which in its own right is a wonderment of technical achievement, and leads to even more questions yet to be answered, as do all good pieces. As can easily be seen in the photograph where the lid meets the vessel, the two jades are not the same color, and yet this is the only way the lid will fit. If turned opposite, the jades match exactly in color transition but the lid will not fit. As with all things, there has to be a reason for this anomaly, as it is not the norm for lidded vessels, or two or more parts of jade which are to fit together, to not match in color. It is a fact that sometimes vessels were made with the different pieces lacquer-glued together, and this can mostly be accounted for by the need for a matching stone to make the addition of a higher level on a complex design, and sometimes in the case of later repairs to crushed or damaged vessels. However, in the case of this vessel, it was most assuredly a ‘planned’ anomaly. The master artist who finished the design and carving would have never, out of negligence or poor planning, reversed the stone to make the lid. For such an important vessel, this would not be the case, and it has been suggested that it was an intentional use of the jade, which we personally find reasonable. The top and the bottom are most certainly made of the same stone, and it has been postulated that it may have been an intentional reversal of the lid for shamanic protection of the deceased, according to some archeological speculations we have entertained.  These grey vessels were most likely made for burial rites and daily or yearly ritual use. Any additional information or insights concerning these types of vessels from responsible persons who work among such vessels in a Museum setting would be most appreciated. In addition, we can find in the photograph above what we believe is the earliest of two different lacquer glue repairs to the vessel since it was first removed from the burial setting many years ago, as will be shown in following close-up photographs. While the old black lacquer repairs are to be found all over both the top and bottom of the vessel, the lacquer was applied mostly to small ’spiderweb’ cracks that surprisingly never broke all the way through. It is only the portion shown in the above photograph where the lacquered  crack meets the upper rim, where a small section actually broke loose and was re-inserted, using the glue.

Degradation And Natural Crack To Part Of The Dragon Designs

Original Degradation & Re-Cut & Re-Polish To Mouth of Main Dragon

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens

The above two photographs were taken at only 1X power of the Canon Macro lens and show tremendous detail already of the degraded nephrite both in the in-situ areas and the ares that have received what we would call re-cutting and re-polishing, using the old methods. As clearly as we can determine, the vessel, as mentioned earlier, has undergone two different polishings and repairs, with the oldest of these estimated to have been performed around the Ming Dynasty period some five hundred years ago. In later microscopic photographs, it will become more evident as to the two different periods of re-working the original vessel, but for now it is important to note the amazing ability of the original nephrite carving to retain its integrity (note the intact teeth and tongue) under conditions of such extended burial and the tectonic movements which must have taken place during the long history of such burial. Clearly visible in the upper-most photo are the two different cracks that appear in the curling design, and it is apparent in the larger one, to the viewer’s right, that the stone held (as it shows no lacquer repair to either side), and light going through the tip of the curl is different than the transmission of light in the thicker area just beside the crack. (The bright white ‘curl’ is an optical illusion and is actually in the background; sometimes it appears to ‘pop out’ of the shot. The jade that is cradled in this white curl is the part we are examining).While having been being re-polished on the sides and on the curve, the chip at the bottom of the main crack is in-situ and has not been re-polished in any way. In the second photograph, evidence of the first re-cutting and re-polishing starts to show in the mouth area of the main dragon on the bottom part of the vessel. The tip of the tongue, outer fangs, and tips of the smaller teeth were surely considered too delicate in their first unburied condition to be re-polished, for fear of  breaking them. The old ones who re-worked these vessels were for the most part masters in their own right, and knew from experience what to touch and what to not touch, as in almost every occasion on any jade artifact we have examined, they knew what was under the degradation and exerted extreme caution in their work, due to the sacred nature of the items themselves. This sort of re-conditioning and study of original old artifacts is well-documented during the Ming Dynasty, as many paintings and written descriptions of the literati exist today, from their studying and revering the ancient arts at leisure. Their study and love led to further Tao and Confucian reverence, in the exquisite execution of their copying and experimental dyeing of the jades to appear as realistic as possible. Many such designs were made during the Ming Dynasty, and at times both the originals and the tremendous reproductions of the period were buried along with the deceased.  However, a true Ming Dynasty funeral jade will not come close to the depth of degradation we see in the older, two-thousand-year-old plus archaic jades, due almost exclusively to length of burial. In these above photos, and all those applicable so far in both parts of this article, the areas where the darker brown staining appears on the jade is part of the first re-working of the vessel, as during the final re-working, only clear wax was used over the second re-polishing. This second waxing is now turning to a more darkened color under microscopic viewing, due to the age of the wax itself, and would be estimated by us to be minimally in the hundred-year-old range. Bits of fiber can still be found attached to both of the different waxes that have been used, and in places, there is still burial debris from its final entombment, perhaps during the period of occupation. These are what is left from our initial cleaning of all modern ‘enhancement mud’ applied prior to our acquisition of the item.

Degradation & Lines Re-Cut On Wings of The Main Dragon

Original In-Situ Crack & Degradation To Underside Foot Of Main Vessel

Above Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens

Both of the above two photographs were taken at only 1X power of the Canon Macro lens, and start to show the differences of the two separate re-workings of the vessel, and some of the original tooling marks dating from its creation. The top photo shows the highest wing tip of the main Air Dragon (which is facing to the right), from the viewer’s left side looking straight on towards the vessel.The re-cutting of the ‘feathers’ on the wing tip are from the original re-working of the vessel when it was first removed from the burial site. The vessel was completely smoothed first to remove what would have been deep pitting similar to the other Warring States Vessel shown in Part One of this article. After the vessel was rough-polished down to where the deep grey natural coloring of the nephrite was showing, the re-deliniation of the original designs was performed. We have other vessels which still show where the overseer in charge of the restorations left original ink on them, from when he would re-draw the original designs from what remained (as in the case of the feathers here), and when the one who was actually doing the re-cutting was following these ink lines, he would not go all the way to the end of the new inked designs, and would leave a trace of ink from the overseer’s brush. In many of these cases where the traces of ink remain, we find totally in-situ tooling marks from the original work. In the above photo there are no ink lines left but, there are places where the design was removed by the re-polishing, and where the new re-cutting was done, it was not totally completed, and the tips still show their original tooling marks. This will be better seen in the microscopic photos to follow. In the second photograph above, we get a glimpse of the bottom of the right front foot of the Main Dragon at 1X power of the Macro lens. In this photo can be seen over two thousand years of workmanship and degradation, and the start of the close-ups of both re-polishings to the vessel. The two large brown-colored depressions are totally in-situ botryoidal shaped ‘break-outs’ where the jade had been hit sometime during its internment, and while the old Chinese usually sifted the dirt for even the smallest of pieces to lacquer-glue back into place, these two small pieces were apparently not found. The brown inside of the break-outs is the old Ming Dynasty period wax used to darken the jade after it had been re-polished, as almost every ancient jade that has been re-polished (to bring out the original stone color), comes with its own ‘antiquing’ method to make them look old again, while still seeing the original stone. This should be viewed as the restorer’s ‘artistic license’, and is found on objects in most museums in the world. As we also do restorations in our Gallery, we have to do the exact same thing to certain pieces, depending on what looks right to us and the client, but it is a steadfast rule of ours to never do such a perfect job that the restored portion can not be perceived by a professional. (We do this simply because there have been people who have purchased items from us in the past as ‘restored’, then attempted to re-sell them as 100% in-situ). On the upper edge showing in the photo can still be seen some of the rounded original tooling marks made from the drilling of the vessel when first ‘roughing out’ its shape. These can be seen as short and deeper depressions along the edge of the foot of the Dragon, and just to the viewer’s right of these depressions are the rough-sanding marks (since then, a bit degraded and pitted) from approximately the Ming Dynasty period, towards the far right of the photo. In the center of the photograph, and in-between the two break-outs, we can now see the tooling, or sanding marks, from the second re-polishing. These show up as whitish sanding-style markings on top of the original degradation, and on top of the old brown wax which had been applied earlier.

[As this article is beginning to get too long for my trust in the blog style format, we are changing it to a three-part article. When reaching over 4,000 words we feel it is better to hold it here, as  it gets too long for a sitting for some of our readers. Also, when saving the article, funny things start to happen on the blog itself as the article gets too long. On our new Antiquities, Plus... web site, scheduled to for initial launch this coming January 6, 2010, the length of an article or review will not be an issue, as it will be a truly state-of-the-art web site, allowing us total freedom to design as we please. So, we thank our readers and our consignors for their continued patience as many more of these types of articles will be written for both the smaller and unique pieces we have, and those we represent, along with some articles and reviews of some larger items that will certainly, and without any exaggeration, add to the base knowledge of ancient burial jades to a degree we believe has never been achieved in any publication.]

David Fredericks  –  Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

Part One of a Two Part Series

Late Eastern Zhao Period Royal Funeral Vessel

Transitional Re-Polished Grey Nephrite

Lidded Vessel

Originally with Total ‘Calcification’

Late Warring States Period Lidded Dragon Funeral Vessel

The tremendous artwork of all the Archaic Periods has always provoked a profound feeling in us and has led to the vast majority of the Fredericks/McIntire Collection being focused on these original works in the Jade Arts. From the earliest times of the Neolithic Period when objects of jade and stone were so pervasively used in religious context, up to the beginning of the famous Han Dynasty, there has never been in our opinion such an uninterrupted explosion of true Chinese genius in the art and expression of “The Stone of Heaven”. From the time of the Neolithic Period for approximately 8,000 years there was a transcendence of design the likes of which will most likely never be reached again, and while some beautiful and exotic pieces were created during such periods as the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the pieces from these later periods were mostly influenced by what had come before, when the succession of creativity was mostly unabated. So, with the odd exception (and appreciation for the technical aspects – like the famous Ming Dynasty Fish Dragons presented to scholars), our collection much mirrors that of the great Grenville Winthrope III in what we perceive to be the epitome of creative expression, in the most difficult stone in the world to work and under such unimaginable conditions, to create such masterpieces of human religious passion and respect. However, with that said, some of the newest works by the most modern Gold Medal winning Master Sculptors at the recent Tiangong Jiang Contest in Beijing proves the Chinese genius is still alive and thriving once more (in the pieces we were blessed enough to view through the courtesy of Lin Wang PhD.), as the creativity shown during this contest in all the fields of carving expertise we witnessed were astounding to say the least.

But, creativity does not necessary translate to ‘Power’ (’power’ being understood in the East far better than in the West), and while new web sites are popping up all the time trying to ‘play’ and, in our opinion, exploit the power of modern pieces and replication carvings for personal and monetary gain, they show very little true understanding of the stone and rather play on words like ‘chakra’ and ‘metaphysical properties’. It is to this end that we introduce this masterpiece of the ancient art of Sacred Carving for the real Shamanic Kings, who were the only ones allowed to own this type of the “Stone of Heaven” and be able to use it in the correct fashion for which it was created by the Old Masters, and imbued through proper ceremony with the true force. The Later Imperial Families tried to emulate these items, and the Mandarin classes chose them mostly for the purpose of displaying their political and social status.

Late Warring States Funeral Vessel - Left Profile

Close Up The Lid Dragon Decoration - Warring States (475 - 221 BCE) Jade Vessel

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

While much has always been made of the famous Translucent White Nephrite Jade used during this period and the ‘mutton fat’ White Jade (yingyu) favored during portions of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 8 CE), very little is ever spoken about the exquisite grey vessels of the same periods, and their usage. Yet some of most fantastic designs ever conceived were created during these periods, using this amazingly tight- fibered, and yet flowing nephritic grey stone. The fact that they were most sacred vessels should not ever have escaped the attention of the Western world, and yet it seems that’s exactly what happened, from all of the literature we have read over the past 12 years. And while the White Nephrite Jade was chosen for the Gold medals at this last Olympics in Beijing, the Grey Nephrite Jade was used for the Silver medals. It seems China still knows the importance of the Grey Jade, but the rest of the world remains in the dark as to its true importance, and it takes vessels and sacred items made of this stone to convey the fact that it was not just another jade, but a ’special jade’ with special significance. At 14-1/8″ Height X 9″ Width X 3/3/4″ Depth and weighing 8 LBs., 1.5 oz., this is not a ‘little’ vessel and would equal any shown in the Beijing Museum from this Period, with the exception of perhaps those in the Sacred Vaults, which are not shown to the general public. The overall beauty of the vessel, and evolutionary achievement stylistically and technically should ensure this vessel a place in the annals of famous Chinese works of jade art, and while it does have some definite design attributes associated with the famous Han Dynasty vessels, there are reasons we place this vessel in the very late Eastern Zhao Period and not the Han Dynasty. These types of pieces (created by a true Master) are always the most difficult for us to date with certainty, because of their transcendental nature of ‘living’ on the cusp of two eras. Designs do not change on a single day as Reigns and Periods may, and much overlapping is found if one knows both the stylistic approach to dating, and the technical aspects involved. But most important of all is the oh-so-subtle aspect of ‘feel’, which is extremely well- known and used in China by the True, Great, Old Masters, passed down for centuries if not millennia, and so little-understood in the Western World. In the Chinese way, the saying is, “You must have touched a thousand real pieces to be called a master”, and this particular ‘Way’ takes a very long time to master, especially for those not associated with a major Museum specializing in this ‘Way’ of jade authentication of ‘touching’ a thousand real pieces. It has taken me over seven years of ‘just this way’ after first learning of the technique from a great man from the west coast of California who had emmigrated here years before from Hong Kong. While he is no longer with us on this plane, some may remember him as the man who always wore black ‘cowboy’ clothes and had the most sensitive little fingers with the long nails. My teaching in this area started with him visiting me almost every two weeks and never speaking more than two or three words; just watching as he touched the jade pieces we owned, over and over again with his little finger, and helping me learn that which he was trying to impart. From there it has taken me seven years to develop this small but important skill.  I passed my 1,000th piece some time ago, and even now know I have much farther to go. This is why the scientific approach is so important to us, as we truly wish to know all aspects of dating and analysis at our disposal. As a special note: It took me over three months to get this man to use a loupe on a piece he could not figure out, but kept saying old – not old. It was a re-cut and re-polished old piece made into a ‘gear bi’ which only had two small barely discernible original string saw cuts . On seeing through his first loupe, he became so excited and I will never forget his face.

Front Dragon On Main Portion Of The Vessel

Sinuous Water Dragon On One Side Of The Grey Jade Vessel

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSI Using 24-70 f/2.8L Lens

The amazing detail created during a period of no ‘high speed’ drills and industrial diamond tools is hard to fathom for those of us who have had at least a little experience in working nephrite jade. Most of us have heard about how it took a lifetime from start to finish to create one of these incredible works of art. When one looks back at the carvings in basalt and soft alabasters and marbles of other cultures from the same period, it is even more incredible to perceive how these vessels were accomplished in even that short a time. With the Chinese core and solid drill technology (now archeologically proven to have existed far back into the Neolithic Period) being so advanced by this period, one still has to take into account the extreme hardness of the darker ‘Imperial’ Grey Jade, which is showing to be incredibly hard for nephrite and extremely tightly fibered, making it one of the toughest stones on earth to carve. I have yet to see a study on what mineral, or minerals, make the pure white jade become grey in its makeup, and it always has an extremely curious anomaly in every stone this author has examined, whether carved and degraded, or in its ‘rough’, un-cut form. This anomaly is that we have never seen this stone with a colored rind of any kind except in surface cracks of pebbles straight from the Khotan Region. Sometimes there is a slight reddish tinge inside the cracks which we find intruding from an outside cause, but never from oxidation of iron in the stone itself unless it is in extremely minute amounts. What we do find in every case is either water-worn smooth grey pebbles with occasional ’snowflake’ areas, or in the case of burial items, the deeply degraded white spotted areas which we can see all over this vessel, even after it has been re-cut and re-polished at least two separate times. At one time the entire vessel was completely covered with this white degradation, and where it was first re-polished long ago, and by old ‘hand-tooling’ techniques, they brought out the beautiful grey nephrite coloring, while the areas with the degradation go through the entire vessel. This type of degradation is only caused by extreme age in a burial situation, and can not be caused by the modern acid etching techniques used on replications. This is the main reason (along with the thousands of original tooling marks still on the vessel) we have chosen to leave this vessel in its ‘as collected’ state. With the exception of just washing off the obligatory reddish mud (which coats most pieces that came out of China), this vessel was chosen because of the literally thousands of areas where positive identification could be made (some of which will be shown in the accompanying Macro and Microscopic pictures), and with the thought that taking off any more than the lightly mudded edges would mar our ability to show a prospective client the different time periods in which this vessel had been buried, cleaned and re-polished, re-buried, cleaned and re-polished again. We decided it best to perform a final cleaning in front of a buyer if they would so wish.

Close Up Of The Dragon's Head On The Lid Of The Vessel

Close Up Of The Dragon's Tail On The Lid

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

The above two photos once again show the tremendous creativity of an age gone by when the art of carving jade was reaching its zenith, and the ones for whom the pieces were made were to become almost extinct as time went on – The great Shamanic Kings, prior to the Dynastic Rulers which were to come. It is because of pieces like these, and others that exceed the two thousand year-old mark, that the top people from China who have come to view our collection will literally not touch, with even their fingertips (but they will get their fingers to within an inch), the jades in our collection that are over two thousand years old. When asked why, they simply say they are too sacred. (But they will handle and fondle all the younger pieces following this period).  They have told me they know that I have permission to touch them, but they do not, in the most reverent manner. Many times I have felt this way, as the pieces truly do have a ‘feeling’ that no other jade artifact has to me, and to others who know, as well. It is hard to explain this in the modern world of today, but the Chinese still understand such things, as they have for thousands of years. Now, we’ll go back to the more common ways to authenticate a real artifact, and will leave the ‘feeling’ for other articles to come. In the next set of pictures, we shall show one of the reasons why each authentic artifact has its own ‘history’, and the fact that those who clean them up take a bit of artistic license themselves, which sometime makes our job as authenticators easier, and sometimes makes it miserable. Look through The Complete Volumes Of Jades Unearthed In China; it will give one a bit of appreciation of this concept, as will taking a tour through Harvard University’s collection of archaic jades.

Another Late Warring States Jade Vessel Showing 100% In-Situ Places

Close Up Of Above Vessel Showing In-Situ Area

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

Close Up Of Above Vessel Showing Area from In-Situ To Re-Polished

In the first of the above photos we can see a wonderfully formed, lidded vessel from a somewhat earlier period then the main subject vessel of this article. This is another of the Fredericks/McIntire collection, and is actually part of set of mated vessels. We are showing this set of pictures and the ones below this paragraph to illustrate just how degraded a true funeral burial vessel from this Period becomes, and how the workers have cleaned these vessels for hundreds of years, each in his own way, or the way set forth by the Master who sets the work in place. The ‘reddish’ areas shown in all three picture are the in-situ portions of the vessel. They remained distinctive, despite  the way this vessel was re-cut and re-polished. As can easily be noticed, the iron oxides on this vessel are more pronounced than they are on the subject vessel as a result of the stone chosen having a different chemical makeup. This stone had places which definitely had more iron naturally in the stone, but only in certain areas, such as the portions showed in pictures one, two and three. However, only in pictures one and three do we see the iron oxidation truly penetrating the entire depth of the vessel. One view of it is the area of the left-facing handle on the lid, and better seen in the third picture; the area is located in the select portion from the original cut on the rim of the lid (as will be seen below), rising up to the top portion of the eyebrow on the central Taotie face. The rest of the light grey jade vessel retains its coloring well, and still shows the degradation in the white areas going all the way through the stone. When modern replications are treated with strong acids and alkalis to degrade the jade (or usually, simulents), the surface of the stones will be much more uniform in their degradation, as the acids and alkalis work quickly to degrade the entire surface, and rarely penetrate to any noticeable depth, except what appears to be depth in areas of suspension holes, and any natural cracks in the simulents usually used. True degradation takes time, and time only, as the natural decomposition of jades starts where there are weaker areas in the nephrite. Over time, these miniscule weaker areas are subjected to water intrusion (as jade, being as tough as it is, remains porous in nature and allows moisture to penetrate). With the temperature and moisture changes of the seasons comes the expansion and contraction that starts the damage in the weaker areas, resulting in the ‘pitting’, as can easily be seen in the photographs above. After enough time in the ground under these conditions, we find that the jade vessels and pendants are all ‘eaten’ to a certain degree, depending on the soil conditions, moisture levels, and whether the item was a surface find or burial item. Many other factors (and combinations of factors) play a role and have an effect on original artifacts, and it is our job to logically determine what the nature of burial conditions was for each object , as well as is humanly possible, not having been with the item in question during its entire life span. Add to this the fact the many artifacts were discovered hundreds of years ago (if not thousands) and have been subsequently buried because of war,  famine, or a myriad of other causes; thus, it can be quite a challenge to figure a piece out logically, and be reasonably certain of the history of an artifact. Having in-situ pieces has helped immensely with our knowledge base, and studying items that have been buried three or four different times also adds to this knowledge base. In some cases, we cannot clean an item in our collection anymore than we have already, or it wouldn’t be possible to show under microscopic conditions the four separate burials it has undergone.  We always have such items on display for viewing and further research. Of particular note in the last two photos above, the reader can see the exact transition from newly polished areas to in-situ condition portions, with the two different Taotei eyes being a wonderful place of focus in pictures two and three; the entire area going from right to left for the viewer. One other marvelous aspect of this particular vessel can be observed at the lower 1/4 portion of the vessel itself, in an area that shows a distinct line running across the entire width of the vessel. This is an extremely old lacquer repair (which is incredibly durable and long-lasting; there was absolutely no degradation to the lacquer glue, or the bond, after a three week soaking in acetone) that was either performed before the vessel was first funereally buried, or extremely soon  after it was exhumed, then re-buried, due to the fact the the degradation to the re-polished jade is exactly the same on both sides of the line under microscopic conditions, and in some parts, transcends the entire wall of the vessel.

Another View of Warring States Vessel & Degradation Above

Bottom Of Lid Of Above Vessel Showing Crack Running To Taotei Eyebrow

Above Three Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Lens at 2X

The two photos above will conclude Part One of this Two Part Series, with Part Two to be published in a few days.

In the first picture above, we can tell that the ‘cleaner’ of this particular vessel chose to leave some parts completely untouched, which is wonderful for authenticators from either the East Or the West. As explained before, there are certain aspects of funereal items which cannot be faked (as of yet), and doubtfully ever will be. Some conditions we find on items, whether  jade or pottery or bronze, just cannot be reproduced and can only come from time (like a tree root eating its way clear through the plinth of a Tang Dynasty horse). The pitting we see here is one of those instances that cannot be replicated, because the stone was so pure to begin with;  it did not have massive impurities for the acids to work on in such a deep manner as to completely penetrate the walls of the vessels. One sees this effect only in 100% authentic vessels of this approximate period. For example, Ming Dynasty Pieces (depending on burial conditions) will be degraded, but not to the extent or depth that is found in jade items buried for thousands of years longer.   While occasionally having some deeper pitting, it will be to much lesser extent than we find on the older pieces, and nowhere close to the all-inclusive look and depth of the Han Dynasty and earlier period items. This ‘rule’ even applies to the high-desert pieces found from both of the aforementioned periods. Genuine oxidation takes time, genuine wear takes time, and genuine penetration of jade by such substances as true loess soil iron takes time. With a little cleaning and the right equipment with which to inspect the item, it then becomes a matter of knowing the faking techniques, and finding out how much re-polishing has taken place (sometimes the cleaners get a bit carried away). In the second part of this article, we will see the through-transmission degradation and Macro and Microscopic photos of the subject vessel , along with the close-ups of the re-tooling and both re-polishings.

David Fredericks  – Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

Silver Inlayed Wood & Jadeite Ruyi

From the Collection of Ms. Kim Stewart

Silver Inlayed Wood & Three Panel Jadeite Ruyi

Original Early Qing Dynasty Ruyi 55CM Long

This wonderful Ruyi first came to us from the collection of Ms. Kim Stewart for authentication and dating purposes. Upon first sight it was never in question whether the Ruyi was old, original and important. The main drive from that point forward has been to identify and record all the original portions of the Ruyi, locate the old and original Chinese repairs, place it in the correct time frame in Chinese History, and understand its importance to the Art World and to Chinese Culture in particular. This Ruyi has been in the Stewart family for two generations now, and was originally acquired around 1952 in California by Ms. Stewart’s Father, Duncan E. Stewart, a well-known Los Angeles surgeon at St. Francis Hospital.

A very fine site in which to view Imperial Ruyi Scepters can be found  here: www.dpm.org.cn/English/e/e27/index.htm  - and while this article pertains to the placing in history and the construction methods used for a particular Ruyi, this site of The Palace Museum in Taipei will enhance anyone’s general knowledge on the subject, and allow viewing of some of the Ruyi’s which will be mentioned here.

The famous “Three Panel” Ruyi’s were first developed toward the beginning of the Qing Dynasty and were considered during the late 17Th Century and through the 18Th Century to be all the rage in the Imperial court in Peking. They were the gifts to the Emperors of the period, and the gifts of Emperors to favored relatives and Civil Officials of highest rank. The extremely large size of this Ruyi is one of the tell-tale signs of its age and its importance, as only two are mentioned in the vast collection of the Palace museum in Taipei that are larger in size. Also the fact that there is only one Ruyi in this impressive collection that is made in this way with huge, solid, jadeite panels. While there is a beautiful full Ruyi over 40cm long made from a single piece of jadeite, showing Imperial Greens (of which, if ‘cabs’ were made from the Imperial green, they would be worth in the millions of dollars alone), the other pieces shown in their collection are either of nephrite or made with pieces of jadeite similar to the construction of ‘jade trees’. Another amazing facet of this particular Ruyi is its current in-situ condition with no museum preservation and the fact that it has stayed almost entirely intact for approximately 300 years while being originally made of ten pieces of wood to create the deep, sensuous curves and overall flowing design we see here today.

Ten Piece Wooden Construction - Fine Silver Inlayed Ruyi

Above Photo’s Taken with Canon EOS XSi

Large In-Situ Top Jadeite Panel In Gold Gilt Bronze

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using EF 24-70mm f/2,8L USM Lens

In this photograph of the large medallion at the head of the Ruyi, we can see how intricately the silver inlay was performed. The fact that it was hand-inlayed can easily be detected by the irregularities which occur in an original piece of artwork, as opposed to those which come from machining. Also, it is only on this top panel and along the sides of the ruyi, in the naturally exposed areas which were most handled, where the true color of the original wood can be best discerned. It appears to this writer that the wood belongs to the huanghuali (yellow or golden Rosewood and sometimes referred to as yellow-sandlewood) variety, which along with the size and intricacy of the overall workmanship, the silver inlay, gold-gilt bronze and massive jadeite plaques, would be one of the two woods of choice (along with Zitan) for an Imperial Ruyi Scepter. The Jadeite plaque which fills the center of the top portion of this Ruyi is approximately  9-1/2cm Wide X 8-1/2cm Hight X 4cm Depth within the gold-gilt bronze ring, and is in 100% in-situ condition. Finding any jade or jadeite piece from this period which has undergone no re-cutting or re-polishing is extremely rare, as almost all pieces have been worn, chipped (as this Ruyi has several small chips), handled to the point of wearing off the designs, buried to hide during wars, and other reasons, and just generally degraded from body salts, acids, polishing and the ravages of time. As an authenticator and curator, one must make decisions regarding cleaning the item in hand, the removal of any foreign substances (such as waxes or the almost obligatory dirt and polishes) used to “re-antique” an item which has undergone any restoration, or just leaving it in the state in which it was found. With most jade and jadeite items, we have to clean the items to make sure there has been no clever re-working and re-polishing and antiquing of the piece. However, with this Ruyi, the decision was easy as it was in such an in-situ condition, without even the normal cleaning and polishing which one would associate with an item of this importance. It came to us so original simply because no one had ever had the desire to do anything but leave the item alone ever since it found its home in the USA. We have only ’shot’ the dust that would come off easily with canned air you would use to clean your computer (some still remains, as you can see in the photos where airborne residues common to the home have adhered). The minor repairs to the wood appear to have been made along time ago in China, with the exception of an aliphatic cementing (Elmer’s glue) of the bottom jadeite plaque, which has since ‘let go’ and is loose for examination (which will be seen in the Macro and Microscopic photographs). One last telling detail in the photograph above is the silver inlay starting to show up as being ‘lifted’ from the surface of the wood. This will be explained more as we get deeper into the article.

Reverse Side - Top Section of Ruyi Showing Typical Huanghuali Color

Reverse, Top Showing Old Chinese Pinned Repair to Curved Section

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

In first picture above we can see the definitive ‘grain’ marks and expected coloring of the famous Huanghuali wood, which is sometimes referred to in China as Yellow, or Golden Rosewood. The National Museum of Taipei refers to this wood as just Rosewood in its largest Ruyi in their collection at 77cm, but still makes mention of its complete Chinese name in the individual description of this magnificent piece. We have also seen this wood described as yellow sandalwood, but by any description, it is well-documented to be one of the woods most chosen for Royal use in China throughout modern history. The top medallion which holds the Jadeite is made of one single piece of wood, and as can be seen in both pictures above, the curving handle starts at the base with what appears to be another type of wood, but we do not believe that it is. We believe it is Huanghuali also, but of a different portion of the tree (like a limb of the tree) which has a darker color and was more conducive to the bending required to make the Ruyi. As this Ruyi was made from ten different pieces of huanghuali, so masterfully crafted, it is another marvelous example of early Qing Dynasty workmanship, in multiple media, that has withstood the ravages of time. Partly due to the fact that it never had to be buried to protect it from theft, it is only lacking the final repairs to make it as pristine as the ones pictured in the Palace Museum. Literally, with one day of work and a yellow tassel on the end, you could display this marvelous Ruyi next to any in the world and it will most certainly hold its own. However, being in such an in-situ condition, one can truly study its ‘history’ from conception to this very day much better, and if we end up doing any conservation on it at present, it will be only to give it a slight coating of special oil to further keep the wood ‘alive’. Even the original break in the curve of the handle tells its own story, and original repair in China only adds to the item’s character and authenticity. Of course an end buyer could do as they please and have it totally restored very easily, as approximately 97% of the silver inlay is intact and a ‘master’ could even match the ‘rising silver inlay’.

Center Plaque of Ruyi Showing Famed Peony Motif as Other Plaques

Naturally Separated And Repaired End Medallion of Ruyi Without the Jadeite and Gilt Bronze Insert

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

These two photos show the 100% in-situ middle medallion with peony motif, and the long-ago naturally separated, original joint, repaired and re-separated end medallion without its Jadeite plaque. In the bottom photo we can easily see the original red lacquer glue that held the bottom jadeite plaque in place, and the newer aliphatic cement that was used to hold it back in place during the last 50 years or so. The bottom ‘flange’ that has separated is part of the original ten pieces that made up the wooden portion of this Ruyi, and on the backside it shows where it had at one time been wet in the upper corner of the joint, which most likely caused the separation to occur. While the lacquer glues are impervious to water and solvents like acetone, the wood itself is not, and when swollen brings out the only known flaw with lacquer construction or repair – that of sideways pressure. Lacquer does have a tendency to get brittle over the years and while it can be soaked in tomb condition for millennia or immersed in acetone for months and still retain its integrity, a sideways shock either from force or from expansion can cause it to loose its bond. Being repaired at a much later date with the aliphatic cement provided only the most temporary of fixes. However, it is an easy repair for an experienced conservator. We have left it in its current condition so as to be able to easily put all the pieces including the Jadeite plaque under the microscope, to be able to more readily show all the original parts of construction, degradation and the Jadeite plaque tooling marks. When resting on a shelf  six inches behind glass, one can not easily tell any damage has occurred to the Ruyi and it still keeps the piece in-situ and available to show in seconds under the microscope.

Bottom Jadeite Plaque Removed From Ruyi

Backside of Bottom Jadeite Plaque with Gilt Bronze Inset Ring

Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi using EF 24-70mm f.2.8L USM Lens

In the top photo above we can see clearly the Peony and Prunus design which was chosen for all three of the plaques on this exquisite Ruyi. As perhaps the most significant flower in China’s illustrious history, the herbaceous peony (Shao-yao)  has been cultured since at least Neolithic times, and the tree form of the peony (Mu-tan) at least back to Tang Dynasty or earlier. The Peony has long been regarded as a symbol of feminine beauty, the sign for Spring and an emblem of love. These Royal Ruyi were known to have been presented at weddings and as gifts to the highest Ladies of the Court, and during the Qing Dynasty it has been noted that some marriage beds were decorated on all four corners with these regal scepters, or wishing wands. Perhaps this particular Ruyi was intended for the female side of the bed-chamber, and it’s not very much of a stretch to assume it may have been presented for a royal wedding with its meanings of feminine beauty, spring (February has always been the most auspicious time for weddings) and an emblem of love. As we start to explain our dating criteria for the Stewart Ruyi, we go first to the above picture of the Jadeite plaque, noticing the lack of deep piercing we start to find around the time of the middle to late 18Th century. This is much more in keeping in what is known of Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty jade workmanship. While not all pieces always fall into exacting specifications, and with the fact that ‘transition’ periods do exist, we look at what is known in a general sense and continue to eliminate anomalies along the way until we get as close as we can, not having been there when the piece was made. In the Palace Museum of Taipei’s web site we can find similarly shaped Ruyi’s, stated as being popular in the mid 18Th Century. The design of this Ruyi falls in nicely with that design, but as we look at other Ruyi’s from the Emperor Qianlong’s reign starting to be more straightened in the handle, we wonder if this is truly the case. As one looks through the three-panel ruyi section of the site, one can start to get a better feel for what is earlier in design, and which ones start to fall into the later design of more straightened handle, even if they do possess the three panels. These newer-looking ruyi’s have a more modern look and feel to them, and are deeply pierced, and when taken into account with every Ruyi represented on the site, we see an emerging pattern in all media in which these famous pieces were made. The ones with the larger three panels have an older ‘feel’ to them in general, and the sleeker looking Ruyi’s tend to have a bit younger dating when mentioned. There are a couple of exceptions but in general this is how we view it. So, we add we we know about this particular Ruyi, and we start to see an earlier patten emerge. We know the earlier wooden ruyi’s are said to be all the rage in the Court of the Emperor Yongzheng (1723-1735), and then we see more sleek ones being revered from the time of the Emperor Qianlong. The delicacy of workmanship from the Imperial workshops is well known to have progressed in almost all aspects during Qianlong’s Reign, and while there is undoubtedly some amazing artistry in all media known to have been produced during the Yongzheng’s Reign, in some particular respects it was not that it did not ‘equal’ the art in his son’s reign, but was more a case of being different from that which followed. Having mentioned the less deeply-pierced design common to the Ming and Early Qing Dynasty carving in jade, it was also very much the case with rhino horn, ivory and lacquer (to mention but a few). When one looks at the bottom of the Jadeite plaque above, we can see two more aspects of construction indicating that it is older than late 18Th Century. First is the continuation from Ming Dynasty and earlier techniques of a heavier bronze ring around the jadeite plaque (averaging 2mm thick) which would be reminiscent of earlier bronze techniques, with thinner pieces being more common from the mid 18Th Century on; and second is the way the master undercut the backside of the Jadeite plaque in strips and then ‘broke out’ the remaining sections, much as has been done with the core drill from Neolithic times. Leaving the bottom portion so unfinished is more a trait of late 17Th to early 18th Century workmanship and less so as that of mid to late 18th Century, from the hundreds of pieces from this period alone that we have examined under microscopic conditions. This will be better viewed in the coming macro and microscopic pictures, and it is because of all the features, wear and tooling we see on this Ruyi that we consider it highly unlikely to be much later than Yongzheng’s Reign and very possibly earlier in its construction. From the overall look and ‘feel’ of this Ruyi, we would place its actual construction at very late 17Th Century to right at the end of the Yongzheng Emperor’s reign. Almost every design in China and around the world has consistently produced earlier date estimations as more excavations and research are performed, as we now have pottery items proven from approximately 20,000 years ago – bronze items dating from around the Holocene Period (10,oooBCE) and most recently, iron artifacts dating to approximately 8,000 BCE. Many of these types of new discoveries will be documented on our coming new web site TimelessArtifact.com (under construction).

Macro Photo Of Old Chinese Repair; Some Inlay Missing

Center Medallion Showing Inlay, Gilt Bronze Ring & Jadeite

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens

In the first photograph above we see an area, under just 1x of the Macro lens, that had been separating and was ‘tack’-glued back into place in China, using an old style of glue (perhaps a ‘pidden’ glue made of egg whites, as these old protein glues are virtually impervious to the elements and extremely difficult to remove) and a mixture of wood ’shavings’ to match the color. Notice that some of the silver inlay is missing around the separation which occurs in a couple of small areas on the Ruyi, where repair or very minor damage from old ‘blunt trauma’ took place. This is very much to be expected in an authentic, old revered and used Ruyi. Where the colors of the different pieces look to be either cleaned or another piece of wood inserted, it is just the two different colors of two of the ten pieces of wood used to make up the scepter. The entire center spine up to the large top medallion is one piece – the base for the top medallion was made of another piece; there are ‘flanges’ cut to perfection on both sides of the lower medallions making up pieces 3,4,5,and 6. There are four more flanges on each side of the long spine between the medallions, helping to make the scallop on the back, using pieces 7,8,9 and 10. All pieces were masterfully created to blend into one flowing design that was later inlayed with fine silver (.925 or higher).  Two of these outer flanges on both the center and bottom medallion had loosened with time and temperature and moisture change. Besides the extremely minor repaired areas, no real detectable ‘damage’ has occurred to this brilliant Ruyi over such a long period of time. This Ruyi is in such a beautiful and ‘true’ state it could proudly sit in any collection in the world or next to any museum piece and still bring awe from the viewer. The only real break occurred, most likely, while the Ruyi was still in China and was to the aforementioned area right next to the top medallion, and appears to be a very old ‘pinned’ Chinese repair, which in our eyes only adds character and authenticity. The lower photograph above shows, under the same 1x power of the macro lens, a close-up section where the jadeite, gold-gilt bronze ring and old huanghuali wood meet. It is here where we can also start to find other evidence of age that only time produces (as opposed to intentional aging of an item). While many replications of silver inlay, jade and gold-gilt bronze abound in the market for sale today, it is in the macro and microscopic photography where we begin to be able to tell with certainty that the effects we see with our naked eye, and even using a ten to twenty power loupe, have not been faked. In this picture we will start with the silver inlay alone and continue with deeper and deeper pictures of it and the bronze and gilt bronze. In old pieces of authentic silver inlay we see here, as in the fourth picture in this article, the inlay and how is rises from the wood over time, not laying flat as it was when first it was built and sanded and polished. The cause of this up-lifting when it is naturally occurring is the swelling and shrinking of the wood over long periods of times. This occurs from both weather and humidity conditions that are constantly changing daily, and can go to extremes if a piece travels from a naturally drier climate to a wetter climate. The wood will naturally swell with more moisture being absorbed by it, causing the soft, fine silver to ’squeeze’ and become ‘flatter’ and wider. Hot and cold – freezing and thawing – also work on the wood and silver, as they do on all natural substances in artifacts, including the jadeite and the bronze in this piece.

Bottom Of Ruyi Showing Attachment Hole For Silk Tassel

Silver Inlayed Peony in Huanghuali Wood & Jadeite Ruyi

Two Above Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSI Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5 X at 1X & 2X

In the first photograph above we find the suspension hole at the very bottom of the Ruyi where the golden silk tassel was most likely originally attached. On first glance, we can see the extreme wear on by a much-used and revered item in the naturally worn areas which produce an unmistakable shine along the bottom ‘lip’ and around the hole itself. The missing silver inlayed pieces around this area also show an item that was not just set upon a shelf and forgotten, as it was a used item, incurring the natural wear and damage as would normally be expected. Even portions of the original cinnabar-colored lacquer can be seen where the gold-gilt bronze ring fits into the wood. All the dirt and dust inside the suspension hole survived the high power air blast, and is indicative of dust that has accumulated on the entire Ruyi over many years, showing no attempt at creating an artificial patina. In the second picture above is a perfect example of the complex silver-inlayed peony which is repeated several times over the surface of the Ruyi. The main themes of the inlay are the peonies, prunus and lingbi scholar stones. Again, the natural wear, the lack of the nearly-obligatory ’shoe polish’ and the overall condition of this Ruyi point it to a very early age, with our estimation being at least in the Emperor Yongzheng Period, and perhaps as old as the later part of the Emperor Kangxi reign.

Jadeite Prunus Showing In-Situ Condition

Reverse of Bottom Jadeite Plaque Showing Tooling Marks

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Lens at 2X

At the 2X Macro setting on our lens, the leaf, stem and platform start to reveal the type of polish, tool marks and lack of re-cutting and re-polishing to the Jadeite plaques on the Ruyi. Due to depth of field with this lens and uneven surface, we get the ‘fuzziness’ as we go deeper into the photo. The clearest portions on all the macro shots will be the area focused on, and in this case it is the tooling marks and the edge of the leaf. On this edge we can see the tiny pitting which has occurred as a result of touching, and the subsequent acids, salts and oils left on the stone from years of handling the Ruyi. Tiny chips start to show up here, from minor ‘knocks’ the jadeite has taken over the many years since it was first created. This happens more frequently with jadeite structure due to its more ‘granular’ nature (as opposed to nephrite), and we get these bits of grain falling out when slightly bumped or nicked. This even occurs when the jadeite is being worked with the heavier grits, as any carver of jadeite can tell you. This ‘pitting’ best shows up in this photo in the center of the leaf and to the viewer’s right, along the leaf’s edge as a ‘roughened’ area with minute dirt specks that have penetrated the holes left in the surface. The in-situ condition we speak of is best seen in the grooves left from the original working and polishing of the stone. If the leaf had been re-cut so as to re-define a worn off area, or even to repair a chipped surface, it would show up as a much more ‘whitish’ cut mark without the smooth and rounded edges we see in this photo. In the second photograph we can see the original grooving cuts made to the back of the plaque, as the deeper ‘ruts’ in the photo. These would have been first cut in rows into the back of the jadeite as a series of cuts, and the material in between them would have then been ’snapped off using a metal pry bar of some type. Then the cut area would have been just lightly sanded during this period of manufacture. Later in the Qianlong Period, the imperial workshops, and even the independent masters, would have followed the edicts of the period and smoothed the back area and polished it to a much finer level. In this photograph we can easily see that very little polishing of the cuts took place, and even these have been worn fairly smooth naturally, as they were most assuredly completed before the finished design on the outside. The small pieces of malachite showing up in the photo are the result of copper fragments remaining in the gold-gilt and bronze ring that have come loose and started to degrade back to their natural state.

Huanghuali Wood and Silver Inlay Under 35X Microscopic Power

Silver Inlay on The Ruyi under 35X Microscopic Power

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS under 35X Microscopic Power

The two photographs above show the current condition of the hundreds-of-years-old Huanghuali wood and fine silver inlay in this fabulous Ruyi. We can see the differing thicknesses of the hand-made silver wire, and the individual grooves made by the original Masters who created this beautiful piece of history. Some of the original polish or waxes can still be identified in the crevices and on the surface of the wood itself. While it is most assuredly polishes of differing ages, we can identify none of it as being new, and when we look into the parts inside the deepest portions of the natural graining, we can see the darkened colors it has taken on with age. In the upper photograph where the silver inlay has ‘pulled’ away from the wood, we can see the natural staining to the edges of the wood from its contact with the silver over so many years. The silver inlay still retains its silvery color, most likely from being in the extremely  dry environment of the desert for such a long period of time. If this piece had remained closer to the ocean, where it was first acquired, a more darkened patina would be expected from the oxidation of the silver around a wetter and saltier environment.

A Portion of The Gold-Gilt Bronze Ring With Lacquer Glue & Degradation

Gold-Gilt Bronze Ring and Lacquer Glue at 35X Magnification

Above Two Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSI under 35X Microscopic Power

In the two above photographs we can see at 35X power the bronze ring on the bottom plaque of the Ruyi, which is loose and unattached. On both pictures you can see the dark red lacquer glue that was originally used to secure the bronze ring and Jadeite plaque to the groove cut into the bottom medallion (as seen in photo #8). In the top photograph, we can see in the middle a piece of malachite-encrusted aliphatic cement which has since fallen off the ring. This water-based glue was used to re-attach the ring when it loosened long ago and came of of the Ruyi. The malachite encrustation on the glue was caused from the moisture in the glue reacting with the copper component of the bronze. This can be seen to a lesser degree on the lower photograph, to the right where the lacquer glue is the thinnest, and a green tint can be detected between the lacquer and the gold-gilding on the ring. The inside of the ring also has this same type of patina, along with slight crystalline malachite growth from moisture seeping in (most likely during cleaning) under the ring. The gold-gilding to the right of the picture is in-situ, and is in comparatively fine condition after all these years, considering the handling and cleaning it has endured. It is interesting to note the slight abrasion marks that never got covered by the gold when it was first gilded, which would have been caused by the filing of the ring to smooth it out once the ring had been welded closed and prior to its insertion onto the jadeite plaque.

Original Tool Markings on The Back Of The Jadeite Plaque

Original Tooling Marks On The Jadeite Plaque At 35X

Two Above Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35 Power Magnification

The above two photographs were taken of the outside of the bottom Jadeite plaque, as it was very easy to maneuver under the microscope and set in the ’sand box’ to still the photograph. What we see in these two photos is exactly what is to be found on the surface of all three Jadeite plaques, the only exception being that the design changes. Over every surface on the plaques we find that there is no wax left to remove, as it has all been absorbed or worn away over the ages. What dust we see adhering to the jadeite is mostly that which has adhered to the stone naturally from airborne oils, such as household cooking oils. All of the pitting is totally natural to jadeite that has withstood the ravages of time in an above-ground situation. We see no evidence of prior burial of any length of time, and the degradation is only that which one would expect from handling, cleaning, and normal ‘accidents’ to the stone. The remaining tooling and sanding marks in both of the pictures is extremely telling to us, as the original polish on the plaques better matches that which is found on earlier items of the 18Th Century and not the smoother look we find on in-situ items from the mid 1700’s onwards. Even with the natural pitting inside the sanding marks on these plaques, we can still readily identify them as an older style than we see on original items stemming from the middle to later Qianlong period. During this later period, the sanding marks on jadeite and nephrite from Imperial pieces do not show, under this magnification, the striated, rougher, sanding marks found on either jadeite or nephrite, and are much smoother or entirely worn away, from the subsequent cleaning and polishing over the years. With every aspect of this wonderful Ruyi taken into consideration, we feel very comfortable placing it in the first half of the 18Th Century.

We would like to personally thank Ms. Stewart for the opportunity to study the Ruyi, and for her trust in allowing us every latitude on how we thought it should be studied. We also wish to thank Ms. Stewart at this time for her confidence and trust in the marketing of this exquisite Qing Dynasty treasure, and we should be able to have it for internet viewing when our new web site is finished, in less than a month from this writing.

David Fredericks  –  Yulongwei

Antiquities Plus…

18Th Annual Jade Festival At Big Sur

When True Jade Aficionados Meet

Setting at 8 AM Before The Crowds Arrive

People out ‘high-grading’ hours before the show starts. When jade is in your blood sometimes you just can’t help yourself. On Friday the 9Th of October the show officially started at 12PM but the crowds were already starting, as usual, at 8AM. A totally unique show to America’s Passion for Jade and Jadeite in one of the only places in the Americas to have an in-situ supply of the “Stone of Heaven”. Located just above Jade Cove, at the Pacific Valley School grounds, which has donated the use of this beautiful spot for 18 years to true Jade Lovers from around the world, this is one of only two true Jade shows in this Country that cater to all aspects of the Jade world. From Miners to Jade Carvers and True Jade Artisans of International Status to dealers in exotic stones and crafts to invited dealers in Authentic Artifacts of Jade masterpieces of the past, there is truly  a whole lot of something for everyone at this unique and exciting venue. It is organized every year by the Big Sur Jade Festival Committee and spearheaded by Kirk Brock of Rock Solid Jade, well known and respected by all the true jade lovers in America (don’t miss the upcoming article on Kirk’s old Clear Creek, California Jadeite samples coming soon here at Timeless Jade).

Setting Up All of Our 'Jade Through The Ages' Booths

The Tents Go Up & The Inventory Gets Set

With three solid days of Music, Food, Crafts, Jade and More Jade, and More Jade Still, it is a time of such fun and camaraderie  that one never forgets, through all the madness of setting up and breaking down the displays every day, just why we all meet in such a glorious setting. This wonderful show provides us every year with beautiful weather to display our passions, meet new people, cuss and discuss Jades from the early morning to late night and enjoy, as the great Fred Ward puts it, “Everything from Billionaires to Belly-Dancers”.  Friendships forged at this show last a lifetime, and now showing up are the children and grandchildren of the original ‘pioneers’ who started, believed, displayed and worked to make this one of most unique shows in the world. However, everyone did miss Sam Gitchel of River Blossom Jade and his marvelous specimens of Botryoidal Jade, so fix that old back, Sam, and quit jumping out of helicopters to snatch those 400 pound boulders.

Jade festival in Full Swing - Buying, Selling, & Trading

Dan Beck In His Signature Tie-Dye / Now This Is A True Jade Man

While many of the Jade Elitists of the business come and go from year to year, it is the great and passionate ‘mainstays’ that make this show what it is to us who love Jade more than sustenance at times, although it is quite clear from the above picture that Dan Beck has a deep passion for both. It is from the great and unassuming Kirk Makepeace of Jade West Mines (largest jade mine owner in the world) to all the miners, divers and collectors who bring out their finest specimens for this show – to the Individual Masters of the Jade Artist Class who provide us with so much inspiration each year (so much inspiration in fact, that their newest designs often start coming out of Thailand, mass-produced, in a matter of weeks after this show, and our annual “Jade Through The Ages Show“). To meet the sparkling personalities of the actual people who literally have risked life, limb and fortune in bringing out the finest Jadeite samples the world has ever seen; to hearing their fascinating stories and the work done to help (the likes of G. E. Harlow of the American Museum of Natural History of New York and S. S. Sorensen, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, on their fabulous studies on Nephrite, Jadeite and Jadeitites). It is always a pleasure to see Peter (Pedro) Lee and Dick Mandell (congratulations on your 90th birthday, Dick), see (and purchase) their wonderful specimens at both the Jade Festival and at our show, as it not only adds to the ‘ambiance’ of the Festival, but without their wonderful stones, the Artists would have less material with which to create their masterpieces. I also would like to take this time to thank all of the great friends who have been following Timeless Jade and have recently donated many unique specimens of Nephrite Jade and Jadeite for ‘Timeless Jade’, to bring to the world under conditions that very few have the capability to examine. So, be looking for more articles this year on Jade and Jadeite specimens, some of which the world has never seen. And while it is nearly impossible to mention everyone of you true Jade Purists by name, we at Timeless Jade truly do appreciate all that everyone has done for so many years, so unselfishly, and wish all of you many years of continued success in your explorative endeavors and efforts to heighten the awareness of both Nephrite and Jadeite, and the wonderful art produced in these media.

Jade Through The Ages Show

Dante Lopez - Cancun, Mexico ~ One Of Our Newest Members

Dante Lopez of Cancun, Mexico and Dante’s Studio is one of the newest members to the JadeArtNow.com group and member of our fourth annual Jade Show – “Jade Through The Ages Show”. Dante was an absolute ‘hit’ this year at the Festival, showing his tremendous gem quality pieces of Guatemalan Jadeite, some as pure and translucent as anything that has ever come out of Burma. That’s Internationally Famous Jade Sculptress Deborah Wilson in the background admiring one of Dante’s pieces.

As we promote the Big Sur Jade Festival all year long at our Gallery and through our multiple web sites, Kirk Brock of the Jade Festival also promotes our show, as together we have the only two true Jade Shows in America each year (although we hear there is another starting in the San Francisco area, to which we wish the best of luck). We have changed the name of our show from Jade Art Now to Jade Through The Ages in an attempt to draw a larger crowd for the benefit of those truly interested in Jade, and will include a massive selection of jades through the ages, going back in time some 8,000 years. We hope this will also draw the attention of other venues such as Public and Private Museums so the show can eventually become a traveling show to help spread the art to other parts of the USA and abroad. As an entity, Antiquities, Plus… has always funded this show exclusively, and has never charged a rental space fee or commission to the artists who participate. We truly have always supported the artists as our way of giving back to those who have provided us such joy and knowledge. However, if anyone one out there would like to help in the promotion of a larger venue along the above mentioned lines, and for the true spreading of the art, all the artists who spend such an incredible amount of time promoting jade would be appreciative. We believe the combined efforts of the 15-20 top Internationally known artists and others that make their way into this group, an exciting and growing showcase of Original Fine Art, would make for a top presentation and draw for any Museum with a passion for Jade.  We are very proud to currently be the only Jade Artifact Dealer the ‘core’ artists will show alongside with, but have no wish to be the only one. We would love to see a company such as Sam Bernstein’s bernsteinjadeart.com (who did so much for the early artists in his many fine publications, and also represented some of them) join in with us, or another fine arts dealer on the East Coast, to help develop and show their artifacts and promote the show further. If there is any interest from those who read this website please contact david@antiquitiesplus.com. Did I mention Corporate Sponsorship yet? Seriously, those of us who are trying to promote both Jades and the Artists who have made such an impact on art though the ages, in one of the hardest mediums in the world to work with, wish to take this project further and are looking for ways to promote  the art and the people or institutions who might wish to help.

Peter And Stephanie Schilling of Taking Form Jade

As the Big Sur Jade Festival has been booked up for years, it has taken quite a bit of time to be able to ‘finagle’ three contiguous booth spaces out of Mr. Brock, but this year the “Gods’ were with us as we finally got our wish to bring our core group of artists together for the first time at the festival. Peter and Stephanie Schilling of Taking Form Jade both work full time at the Harvard University’s incredible museums, with Peter working on all the changing displays at the Fogg and Sackler Museums for years (including the finest selection of archaic jades outside of China). Stephanie works in the financial end at the Harvard Museums, and together they put on one of the finest displays of contemporary jade carvings at both our show and at the Big Sur Jade Festival. How Peter can work a full time position and still show up bringing in excess of 200 pieces is mind-boggling to everyone, and his loose grit polishing method is as fine as it gets anywhere in the world. Truly a master of the ’simple form’, Peter broke all his own records at this year’s show, and his reputation as a “World Class” Jade Carver is far overdue. It is truly an honor to have Peter and Stephanie as our personal “booth mates’ every year. Quiet and unassuming, generous and knowledgeable, Peter is in a class all by himself and respected by  everyone in the Jade World, from the top to the bottom.

Peter & Stephanie "Comparing Notes" With Georg Schmerholz

"The Group" At Jade Through The Ages Booths

Having the ‘core’ members of the Jade Through The Ages Show all together in one spot at this year’s Big Sur Jade Festival was truly a dream come true. While Matt Glasby and Justin Barrett have had their own booths at the Festival for years and could not make it over to ours this year, we hope that in the future, we can all be located next to each other to make our presence even more impressive. While our ‘high end’ only show in Tucson every year brings some of the best 15-20 artists in the world together at one fantastic showing, we as a group are always looking for new, original talent and would love to see some of the extremely talented new artists from China that are beginning to bring to light passionate, original works of contemporary Jade Craftsmanship, as well as other artists from around the globe. We also show works of Jade Art created by the early masters in America like Warren Rees, and this year we are proud to represent the work of John Snook (now 60 years young – sorry John) who first started mining jade with his father in Wyoming when he was 12 years old. John also made and sold his first two creations that year, a jade cabochon and a jade ring. We are currently trying to chase down some more of the ‘old fathers’ of American Jade Carvings, some of which are currently in museums in the US. Anyone reading this who might have some contacts or further information is invited to contact us, as we would very much be interested in an ‘on loan’ agreement with these institutions or individuals. Again, we can be reached at david@antiquitiesplus.com. In the above photo we see again Peter and Stephanie Shilling talking to one of the Worlds Finest Sculptors – Georg Schmerholz of Transylvania and the USA. Georg’s body of fantastic work can be previewed at his two websites http://schmerholz.com & http://jadefineart.com . In the background of the last photo we have true jade aficionados in Rudy Estrada (red hat) and Frank Marquez (black hat). Talking to them are Deborah Wilson of British Columbia and Donn Salt (’the man in black’ bent over) of New Zealand – two of the most published Jade artists in the world, and members of the core group and voting council, as are Peter, Georg and myself. Seated at the far left is jadeite hunter extraordinaire, Dick Mandell. Also, while everyone touched and thought the pumpkin was made of green jade with an orange skin – it was just a pumpkin that gave us hours of comic relief.

Matt Glasby's Expression Upon Seeing My 128 Lb White Khotan Boulder

Showing in the center of the second photograph of this article is the 128 pound white with red rind Khotan Hetian (ying yu) Nephrite boulder. It did not make it to the end of the show, being snatched up by a collector. Also, having K. C. Bell Of KCB Natural Pearls and his friend come to spend a couple of days with us was like having our own cheering section behind us. We have been working the last two years authenticating K. C. Bells 30 year collection of stone artifacts from around the globe and this year he brought me a wonderful Chinese rhyton cup, of which we have already verified, as I wanted to do a Timeless Jade article on it alone. It is the oldest Rhyton I have personally ever seen and the article’s photography will be unique, to say the least. After the article we will also be representing the piece for sale. It will be a great opportunity to preview such an artifact before it hits the “market”.

Our 'Main' Case of Artifacts

Another Case of Selected Artifacts

Previewing A Case Of Estate Pieces We Represent

Finishing Setting Up For The First Day

Our Annual Fake Vs. Real Display

This display has always been a “hoot” at the two Festivals we have presented it. In this year’s display I added a ‘ringer’, as I always do, with both examples being real, and a ‘hidden’ surprise where both items were real but of different eras. So many people get a kick out this display, and it is usually the  novices that get the highest percentage of right answers, as the ‘experts’ always try to figure out more of how I arranged it and the ‘little old ladies’ just go with their ‘gut’ feelings. But almost everyone has enjoyed this case the most, as it is displayed as a fun game  that truly educates.

Another View of the Main Case

As in our Gallery, and on the web site of antiquitiesplus.com, every piece we sell comes with a 100% guarantee on the item itself, against any authority in the world. This guarantee travels through successive buyers, and even auction houses, and rests with the owner in whose hands it currently is.

Our Khotan Hetian and Wyoming Jades For Sale

Wyoming ‘Edward’s” Black Nephrite alongside of Chinese Khotan White (ying yu) and Black Nephrite Boulders with multicolored Pebbles from China and a few accent artifacts for “color”.  As Khotan Jades have never really been seen anywhere near this degree at the Jade Festival, they made quite a hit with the crowds, and many of the Carvers went home with some new material they had never carved before. Hopefully we will see some new Khotan creations at the next Jade Through The Ages Show. One piece of polished ‘Edward’s’ black is in route for permanent display at Pierre Savoie’s Musee du Jade museedujade.com in Quebec, Canada.

One Big Black Khotan Jade - Rarer Than Even The White Jade

This huge and rare Black Khotan Hetian Nephrite Jade boulder can be seen at Antiquities, Plus… Gallery in Tucson. Arizona. We also have one about 4 times as large. Now if we could only find a yellow boulder that big!

The Crew That Made This Years Festival So Much Fun

From left to right: Peter Schilling  / Deborah Wilson / Donn Salt / Justin Barrett / David Fredericks / Dante’ Lopez / Georg Schmerholz – Missing in Action – Matt Glasby and 15-20 others who will be at the Jade Through The Ages Show

PS: We would also like to thank from the bottom our hearts, Cedric Felix for guarding the Gallery, the Home, the Plants and ‘Scarfy’ while we were away; Mr. Fred Gumbart (our Ethnographic Director) for all he did for us from start to finish (sorry about the bad back Fred), and for helping us at the Festival; Dr. Timothy Jones (our PhD. and Director of Anthropology & Archeology) for staying home and getting his daughter married off, & Ms. Patty Malcom without whose help and guardianship, this year’s show would have been so much more difficult to have accomplished. Her staying on site and helping with the loading and unloading of our artifacts every day helped us immensely and ensured our safety on the drives home every night. And last, but definitely not least, everyone of us, including all the artists, would like thank Melissa McIntire for being there for all of our needs, for without her being there for all of us it would probably all fall apart. We would also, like to thank “The Naked Jade Carver” for all he has done to help these fine international artists ‘become all they can be’!

David Fredericks  –  Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

One of the Most Fabulous & Unique Nephrite Jades Ever Discovered

Photo Taken With Canon EOS XSi Using EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens

I believe almost all true Nephrite Jade aficionados were effectively ‘hooked’ by the “Stone of Heaven” through a singular event;  a single encounter with a particular piece of stone. For me it was at a very early age (somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 years old) in a barn in the Mid-West where I saw my first ‘treasure’, a carving stuck between two bales of hay at a good old farm auction.  It sure was green, and it sure was beautiful, with all the intricate little people, trees, animals and tiny houses, and even though the auction house put it up on the block after my discovery, and asking if “this was going to be for sale”, it sure didn’t end up meeting my budget by the time the gavel hit. But hooked I was, or perhaps smitten would be a better word, as no matter where life would take me after that, I never forgot that beautiful piece of stone and the wonderful carving on it.  Whether it was really Jade or just a green stone, and whether it was truly masterfully carved or just a nice little WWII tourist item, all I really can say is that 50 years later, I am still fascinated by jade, and fascinated by carving and artistry of all types, but particularly Chinese, like that first ‘greenstone’ carving I lost the bid on so many years ago. (I did end up buying at that auction a little carved greenstone fish that I will always swear was my first piece of jade, even if it wasn’t .

This tremendous example of gem-quality “Polar” Nephrite Jade was donated to us by Mr. Kirk Makepeace of Jade West & Jade Mine, out of his personal, private collection of specimens, for a series of articles in which we can continue to discuss some of the different qualities and characteristics of one of the world’s most fascinating and truly glorious (and also misunderstood) stones. In this series of articles, we are going to examine one of the most beautiful nephrite jades ever discovered, and compare it to several other extremely unique types of nephrite. We will study it by way of structure, texture, durability and carvability; but in luster and sheer beauty it will be extremely hard to find any nephrite that stands so high. The series will end some months from now (as I do run a full-time business with interests in jade and art), with a finished, polished carving, in which I hope to come close to fulfilling the potential of this marvelous specimen.

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

When the worlds finest Jade Carving Artists, Geologists, Mine Owners, Geophysicists, Artifact Specialists, Rare Specimen Traders, and just plain old aficionados of  Nephrite and Jadeite gather at the few venues dedicated to support this marvelous stone, certain common-use terms float about the conversations for hours, or days at a time. At shows like the Big Sur Jade Festival and the Jade Art Now Show, with each particular specimen or jade carving comes talk from all walks of life about each stone’s particular color and structure. Words like opacity, translucence, chatoyancy, ‘cream’, ’cheese’, jadeitite, texture, snowflake, flowing, ‘tight’, ‘flaky’, associated minerals, and hundreds more are just commonplace terms bandied about and not given much thought among those that have made the differing jades such an important part of their lives. In this one unique specimen called ‘Polar’, we find all that is written and talked about in the Stone of Heaven. It is perhaps the most representative sample of what nephrite truly is that I have ever run across, and to me it means “Jade in All Its Glory”. Preferences in the business vary, from certain types of nephrite because of their particular needs in carving, to the colors that fascinate them (like the purity and tightness of Edwards Black and certain Olive Wyoming stones), to the unique qualities of some of the famous New Zealand Jades and those from Australia, British Columbia, Siberia,  the different Jades from California, and indeed all over the world. All that is expressed and felt about the different types of Nephrite Jades is meaningful and true to those passionate individuals who hold their beliefs, but concerning everyone I have ever seen who prefers a certain stone like the beautiful blues of the California coast and other places, I have never seen anyone pass by a piece of Polar Jade, not stop and, half in awe,  make an exclamation of beauty, or simply mutter to themselves under their breath something like, ”simply stunning”. So now, just for the sake of this article, we will again put up the first picture to discuss the overall qualities.

Here we can see the awesome translucency that shows along the left edge of the picture, under just the regular photography lights. We can see the unique yellowish/green contrasts that come from the marriage of the Iron and the Chromium, but rather than the chromium garnets we find in say, Cassiar nephrite, the mix of the two metals is much more homogeneous in a fine piece of Polar, and tends to give an ‘ethereal’ glow to the stone. We still find areas (spots) of heavier Chromium concentrations that show up as the brilliant yellowish flakes we see in this picture, and later you will get to see under magnification the complexities that make up these unique portions. Also to be seen in this specimen, if looking closely,  are the associated metals in the tiny black spots of Magnetite. However, to me, the strangest formations that take place in Polar are the fairly total, translucent white areas that are so much like the finest Khotan translucent white nephrite that has been revered for millennia, mixed and swirled in with the unique cloudy actinolite fibrous areas we see, looking like cirrus clouds intermixing through a sky of green in an ‘otherworldly’ pattern found in no other nephrite I know of, to this degree. In my opinion, if this Polar Jade had been known to the great Qing Dynasty carvers from  China in the late 1850’s era, we would have seen the more popular Siberian Apple Green masterpieces replaced, and relegated to a secondary status by this, a  far superior stone with an inherently much more magnificent feel.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi using EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens

This close up of the above stone shows in great detail the ’swirling cloud’ effect that is so unique to Polar Jade, and while this close up ‘washes out’ a bit of the intense yellow/green color, it can still be seen where the light penetrates the stone on the left side of the photo. Also, to be seen are the little specks of Magnetite, showing up as small black dots over and inside the nephrite. While these Magnetite intrusions are similar to those found in Siberian Jades, they have a much different pattern on the whole, and show up more irregularly in the Polar, while they seem much more homogeneous in the Siberian samples we have examined. This is not to say one is better because of this placement, but it helps simplify identification for the less experienced  collector. Just as not all Polar jade is exactly the same, neither is the Siberian or other jades displaying these Magnetite specks, and by examining enough specimens from known sources, one starts to get a fairly good feel for the placement of a stone to the area from which it could have come from, by knowing some of the varying anomalies that occur in each area. Also, while sometimes we must speak in generalities concerning stone from differing areas, it should be noted here that some of the Siberian gem-quality stone is extremely fine and displays many of the characteristics we will be discussing in this article, but as of this date we have not seen a large piece of Siberian nephrite that even comes close to showing all the extremely unique characteristics found in this one piece of Polar jade. This is not to say that a piece of similar nephrite does not exist out there somewhere, or that a stone will not be found that has all of these extremely important characteristics of a “true stand-alone type”, but to date we know of no other nephrite that is quite like this exquisite stone, which came from a deposit that was so prolific and produced such quality.

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

Another fine photo, again showing  from a different viewpoint, some of the unique structural properties of Polar Jade in just a small close-up section of the stone. The fine translucence is clearly visible toward the right edge of the slab,  proximal to the outside rind. In this area we can see how a small, clear, white, translucent section goes all the way through this particular area to the rind on the other side. More of the cloudy, fibrous, and chatoyant swirling shows up in great detail, melding with the greener portions at this level, but will disappear when we get past the Macro lens photos and into the microscopic photos. The Magnetite ’specks’ are more concentrated on the outside edges of this specimen, but can be found deeper in the stone, as will be shown in some of the Macro lens and microscopic pictures. The highly unusual white “flakes” that one often sees in “snowflake” specimens will also reveal that they are not typical snowflake sections, but rather, are a formation unique to this particular stone, and as yet, are an unknown (to us) type of structure and mineralization. This will be very clear in the coming microscopic pictures.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X at 1X

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Lens at 2X

The two photos above show approximately the same area, but with differences in the Macro lens being set at only 1X power and the second photo at only 2X. The clear translucent area, with its cloud-like formations in this wonderful piece of Polar Jade, runs its entire length of approximately five inches, and clear through the slab that ranges from a negative edge to approximately one and a half inches in width. In the first picture, the cirrus cloud-like nature appears to be more of a surface effect on the Nephrite, but we can clearly see in photograph 2 that with the penetration of the Macro lens, the ’clouds’ actually show thoughout the stone in differing levels. This gives the jade a strong sense of depth and ’feel’, as one rolls the piece over in one’s hands. In the sunlight, it bestows the piece with a subtle glow of deep, translucent water green and a presence of water-like, flowing motion. Under the light in ‘house’ conditions, the entire color of the stone changes to one of deep emerald green with literally waves of  motion in the translucent portions, and bright green specks where the ’snowflake’ effect occurs. The difference in the sizes of the minuscule Magnetite particles, deeper in the ‘body of the jade, is accentuated greatly by the change from the 1x to the 2x Magnification of the Macro lens. This also accounts for difference in color seen in both photos. Both colors are true to the amount of light and magnification received.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using 20X Microscopic Power

The above photograph taken under only 20X Magnification starts to show the cirrus cloud-like formations in the translucent area starting to disappear, while the true color of the Chromium and Iron mix of yellow/green begins to show up more. The Magnetite crystalline formations begin to show up as more than mere ’specks’, and we can begin the see the structural qualities of the snowflake anomalies that occur thoughout certain portions of the stone. One can start to see the snowflake patterns not as fractures in the stone (although there are a few small fractures that are natural or are due to the mining process), but almost as what one one could describe as ‘growths’ within the nephrite. While the whitened areas do start to take on a fibrous look at this power, and almost appear as a ‘mutton fat’ nephrite formed inside this stone, it is doubtful to us that this would be the case. In a nephritic stone such as this, there would seem to be just too high a mineral contamination for a solid, pure white nephrite to form. Not to say it can never occur, as one will sometimes see in Khotan Jade from Turkanistan just such a definite transition; but that is the point. The pieces we see coming from the White and Black Jade Rivers region, while oftentimes having such transitional colors (and many old nephrite artifacts of the archaic period were clearly chosen for this flowing transitional color effect), show their color ranges more on a linear, flowing development (much as with the flowing transitional zones in this piece), and not in the spotted manner we see here with this piece of Polar Jade. We think it would be a good study for someone like the GIA to examine these types of areas, and determine conclusively if it is nephritic in nature or something different. Perhaps a pseudomorph type of transition is occurring, or there truly are other types of crystalline growths occurring within the nephrites.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using 30X Microscopic Power

The above photo was chosen just to show the awesome beauty of color that is so typical of what one finds in the most ‘emerald’ portions of Polar Jade. Taken close to the cross fracture from mining (as can be seen in photograph 2) this photograph shows a minor fracture on the polished skin on one side of the stone. The slight fracture is just refracting the light from the microscope and allowing us to see clearly the transitional zones of color. Magnetite crystals and minor white growths mentioned in the above paragraph can also be seen under the surface layer.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using 35X Microscopic Power

This wonderful photograph shows certain aspects of Polar Jade at their finest. The translucence  and true depth of color become evident at the higher power used in this shot. The Magnetite crystals are even clearer, and the white growth spoken of previously can now be seen almost like coral under water. Another piece of Magnetite lies deeper inside the stone beneath the  white growth. The tightness of grain in the fibrous nature of this specific type of nephrite starts to become extremely obvious in the lack of fibers showing at 35X . It is an extremely tightly-fibered piece of nephrite, as will be seen in additional photographs at higher magnifications.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using 40X Microscopic Power

At 40X magnification, we can start to see the nephritic fibers in this particular stone. Usually it quite easy to detect these nephritic fibers at powers as low as 10X to 20X, but here we have a very translucent stone and very small and tight fibers. It should be noted that the more opaque the stone, the easier it is to see the nephritic fibers. Some opaque jades like Wyoming Edwards Black and some of the olives, along with the famous Cowell Black discovered in Australia in 1972, are obvious exceptions to this rule. It really boils down to us that some jades, even from the same general area, are not at all the same but rather are so obviously different that this still puzzles us; why we find so little useful information in this area ever having been published. Our planned article on the different structures found in jades of the Khotan area will be a fine article to illustrate just how diverse nephrite jade truly is, even in a fairly generalized area.

Above Photos Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using 90X Microscopic Power

The above two photographs precisely show the fibrous nephritic nature of Kirk Makepeace’s Jade West/Jade Mine’s Polar Jade at 90X microscopic power. It has always amazed me that the best-known, and extemely copied, high-resolution photographs of both nephrite and jadeite are false color images, when it has long been within the scope of photography and geology to render true life photographs of both types of stones and show their real nature. While there have been many articles written about Mr. Makepeace and all of his adventures in the World of Jade, we want this series of articles, from polished specimen to finished carving, to stand alone as a testimony to the unique beauty and fascinating characteristics of this phenomenal stone.  Currently, it is our understanding that no more of this particular material is available from the Polar Mine; however, other fascinating jades are still being mined and marketed by Jade Mine.  But who knows what lies around the next bend?  We are sure that Mr. Makepeace will indeed be peering around that bend.

David Fredericks

Antiquities, Plus…

A Wonderful Shang Period  (1,700-1,100BC) Green Nephrite Jade Kneeling Royal Pendant

Dimensions:  76mm Height X 32mm Width X 33mm Depth

Provenance: Ang Ngo Gan Collection. We are extremely proud to be named the official Authenticators and Curators for the Ang Family of California and their wondrous grouping of jade artifacts.  All the pieces we are representing were brought into the United States in 1950 by the Grandfather of Marilou Ang; Mr. Ang Ngo Gan, originally from Ching Kang, China, near Amoy, during the ‘Period of Confusion’.  He was a restaurateur and business man in California, and his collection is now represented by Antiquities, Plus… through his granddaughter Marilou Ang and her husband Richard Evangelista.

Before we present our articles that will be displaying re-polished artifacts and items showing real pieces and the modern replications made off of them, we will first be continuing with several more publications on 100% In-Situ, authentic items. In this exquisite green nephrite Shang Period pendant of a kneeling Royal, we find many true indicators of age that are impossible to fake even by the best of the replicators, in their famous museum-quality reproductions (Gao Fang’s). Most of the finest modern reproductions are now being made with weathered serpentine, that while having almost the right feel of weight to them and a wonderful, natural, red coloring to the stone from oxidation of the iron mineral in them, they are still not nephrite jade, even though some of them could easily be called a semi-jade, as they had originally come from the the transition zone where the nephrite and serpentine meet. The stone in this Shang Period artifact is indeed a wonderful darker green Nephrite jade, and would have come from either the Black or the White Jade River areas in modern Turkanistan. This is a wonderful area for nephrite, and produces some of the most beautiful nephritic material in the world. Soon, we will be doing an article on the different structural types from the  ‘Khotan”  area. Stylistically, this piece shows many of the traits commonly associated with known archaeologically substantiated Shang Period artifacts and clothing styles, most notably the “false relief” created by drilling and wheel-cutting into the nephrite without actually removing all the surrounding material, to produce a true relief (shown best in the clothing designs on the sides of the kneeler, and in the structure of the ears). Also, with this piece having been being carved “in the round”, it shows a continuity with the Neolithic Period designs which preceded this era, but had started to become less anthropo zoomorphic and more realistic in nature. We also see during this period a more pronounced transition; many flatter religious carvings started to become more common, and the figures in the round became more rare.

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

While the surface of this jade figure looks smooth and shiny to the eye in the above photographs, we will see quite the opposite in the photographs that follow. The object shows absolutely no signs of any re-polishing under magnification up to 90X. The shiny exterior look to the item most likely comes from being out of the ground for a substantial period of time, and the subsequent polishing and smoothing associated with hands touching the artifact in reverence, as was almost always the custom in China. The natural body oils from fondling the stone over an extended period have actually entered into the porous nephrite over the years, and could not be removed even after a two week bath in acetone. No recent wax residues were encountered, which would have turned white as new waxes do, while five-hundred-year-old Ming Dynasty waxes are so hardened, and have penetrated the stone so deeply and thoroughly, as to almost become one with the stone; so it is also with old body oils. To further insure the integrity of the artifact and its natural patina, a similar “bath” in bleach was performed, and a short bath in oxalic acid was also undertaken to make sure no baked-on shoe polishes or other such materials were used. The artifact remained the same when we were finished as it was before we started. All reddish areas on the stone are natural oxidation of the iron in the nephrite, and intrusions from iron-rich soils, much like the Han Dynasty Bi in our last article. Also, it is interesting to note in this figure the intentional use of a small portion of “celadon” colored nephrite in the original stone, used for the front protrusion on the hat, and the natural oxidation to the reddish/orange color.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSI Using Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Lens at 1X

This photograph of the “bull nosed” suspension holes on the top of the hat of the Shang Dynasty kneeler shows with great clarity the naturally cracked nephrite and the oxidation that occurred over millennia of burial. Also to be seen are two of the nephritic characteristics of “Khotan” jade in particular. As mentioned before, we will be writing an article soon on the differing structures found in nephrite from this area, complete with photographic studies, but in short, the top portion of the photo (above the suspension holes) shows a delineation of large nephritic “crystals” (similar in make up to Lake Tai Variegated Nephrite), while the bottom half, below the fracture line, shows the “flowing river” nephritic structure that seems more often associated with fracture lines in “rough” pieces from this area, and in true burial objects. This fracture line extends across the entire hat and down both sides of the head, splits off into triangular sections around both ears and joins up again as more of a singular line in the neck area and under the chin of the figure. The fracture has never gone completely through, and the structural integrity of the kneeling figure is still sound, but the pendant most likely should not  be worn again, and kept for display purposes only. After thousands of years of freezing and thawing, natural penetration of seeping waters, and tectonic movements, the fracture site has been affected most at its weakest spot, where it meets at the suspension hole. It is here we find the widest, most degraded and most oxidized portion of the fracture.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Under 35X Microscopic Power

In the above photograph we see a closer view of the degradation to one edge of the suspension hole in the top of the hat on the Shang Period figure. The iron oxides become much more defined under the higher magnification, and the depth of the degradation can be more easily discerned.  This deeper degradation occurs most often in areas that have natural fissures and the water can penetrate deeper into the nephrite. Also, the fact that this portion of the figure had the most pressure applied while drilling out the suspension hole (as occurs even in all new works of nephrite carving), and the fact that the suspension holes were rarely polished, explains why the deepest original tooling marks can often be found inside the suspension holes. The grit sizes used when drilling the holes (and “roughing” out a carving in general) were naturally coarser, and left deeper ‘damage zones’ where the micro-structure under the surface of the nephrite gets shattered. This allows degradation of the nephrite to occur more quickly, relatively speaking, and more deeply over extended periods of burial, along with easier penetration of water and soil ‘”contaminants” into the microscopically fractured nephrite. The other anomaly we find is that inside the suspension holes, this occurs less readily than on the surface portions, and is most likely due to the suspension holes filling up with silt, which over time, actually tends to lessen the effect and helps to preserve the original tooling marks inside the holes. This photograph also shows well, at the higher magnification, the original weathered surface of the figure, with no new polishing grooves on the outside of the carving.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi at 35X Microscopic Power

This photograph was taken inside of one of the suspension holes and shows very clearly the tooling marks from drilling, as discussed in the last paragraph. The deeper individual grooves are formed when new, coarse grit is applied. The new coarse grit cuts a deeper groove into the nephrite as the drill spins around, and eventually starts to wear down much as the grit on a piece of sandpaper gets smaller and less abrasive as the sandpaper is used. When the grit starts to lose its “cutting power”, it makes a smaller grove in the nephrite, and when fresh heavier grit is added, it makes the grooves deeper again. This is the cause of the alternating depths we see in the photo. [The new replicators are very aware of this technique  and have for years drilled pieces with modern diamond tools and then gone back over them with traditional methods to add the "old drill" marks onto a newly made piece. The white areas we see in this photograph are natural "calcification", which is actually degradation to nephrite jade. The current replicators often strive for this effect using a very highly acidic or extremely base alkali bath. However, this usually results in all the tooling marks being destroyed in the process, and with the serpentine stones that are most commonly used in modern reproductions, this replicating technique manifests itself by showing nothing but different interlocking layers of crystalline structures with a "calcification" look all over the entire piece, and will look the same in the suspension holes as it does on the outside . This "over-all" effect is most often overcome by the replicators by lightly polishing the outside of the stone and applying various dyes and wax treatments which can easily be removed by acetone, bleach or a short soak in oxalic acid.]  The dark lines on the inside of this artifact are authentic manganese tracks laid down by “feeder” roots that had grown into the suspension hole after it was buried. Tree or plant roots will uptake manganese as they grow, and when they die and rot away on a true artifact, the manganese actually remains on the object’s surface, and in a process we have never before read about, actually grow and adhere to the material; not only nephrite but all types of stone and pottery objects of long term burial. These deposits are extremely well documented around the world, but personally we find them more, and larger in size, on artifacts from areas that are moister and have more vegetative matter associated with the burial object. Most often the replicators use black paint “splotches”, burnt-on sugar, or sugar water (to carbonize the sugar into a crystalline form), and baked on dyes and ”shoe polishes” to achieve this effect. All these effects are easily removed in the above mentioned manner, but recently we have been finding a new method in which they actually use minute black metallic fragments, mixed with fine grit and glued onto the surfaces. These are also easily removed with proper treatment. As this Shang Dynasty Period artifact has undergone all the treatments mentioned above, in addition to our hand-held high-pressure water gun (that will almost pierce the skin), it is most assured that these tree root remnants are original and are actually attached to the nephrite. Due to the magnification properties, this photo appears to some to be concave, and convex to others. It is indeed concave, and these photos sometimes exhibit an optical illusion.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi Using MP-E 655mm f/2.8 1-5X Lens at 1X

The photograph above again shows us the same set of remaining manganese “growths”, starting where several feeder roots were once attached to the nephrite. We will be including in future planned articles other types of natural anomalies and some of these will be showing mineralized (petrified) organic detritus in differing stages of the mineralization process. Sometimes entire root sections show up under different magnifications (with some so clear they can be seen with the naked eye), from the first stages of mineralization to total petrification where the old feeder roots have become part of the “mother stone” in a process which occurs much the same as the pseudomorph phenomena. Here we can trace the root tracks in a curving section just underneath the chin on the left side of the figure and again see the naturally eroded groove of the neck area, with no evidence of re-cutting or re-polishing. Also, we can start to  examine the presence of original, associated soil deposits that still adhere to the nephrite after a thorough cleaning .

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi at 30X Microscopic Power

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi at 35X Microscopic Power

Both photographs above were taken in the same approximate area as the photo used in the previous paragraph, taken at 1X with our Macro lens. In the top photo we can see several areas with the manganese root tracks as well as areas of small deposits of manganese. It is in the manganese (which takes such a long period to grow, deposit, and adhere into, and then become one with the stone) that most archaeologists and anthropologists find conclusive proof of long-term burial, and finding a manganese tree root track is overwhelming proof of extended burial. In the second photo we can see a bit more of the detail from the feeder roots, as well as the consistent degradation over the entire surface of the figure. No traces of modern or old tooling marks are present in this magnified photograph, as it is of an area that had been originally well-polished, and no deep tooling marks remained, as they did in other areas. In fact, it is easier to see the original drilling marks over the rest of the surface of the figure’s neck with the naked eye, as the contrast more readily lends itself to catch the dips and shadows in most lighting . Original soil and mineral penetration can easily be seen on the nephrite from casual viewing through all ranges of microscopic power.

Photo Taken with Canon EOS XSi at 35X Microscopic Power

In this last photograph we can see all of the aforementioned indicators of true age for this marvelous Shang Period Kneeling Royal figure: the natural degradation of the nephrite, as shown in the picture by the iron oxides; the iron-rich soil impregnation of the nephrite; the naturally degraded and tectonically worn tooling marks; and the manganese deposits in the design on the right thigh, all in one photograph at 35X magnification. The shine is  entirely natural, without any wax, on a cherished bit of history that someone has cared for and caressed, polishing by touch alone.

David Fredericks

Antiquities, Plus…

Amongst all the Jade Aficionados, including miners, hunters, dealers, collectors and carvers, the last group is afforded perhaps the best chance of truly feeling and experiencing, on a deeper level, the magic and mystery of Jade.

I would like to share an experience I had while finishing a sculpture named Shibumi, as I was preparing for the Second Annual Jade Art Now  Show 2008 at Antiquities, Plus… Gallery in Tucson, AZ.

Shibumi Sculpture From Different Perspectives

Sculpture has been my life-long passion and dedication, and I had worked with just about all media with the exception of jade, when in 1993 I was given the assignment to carve the 7’ tall jade Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, out of the same 30+ ton boulder, to be the companion to the largest Jade Buddha in the world, which now rests in a temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand; my first ever jade sculpture!

After 3 month of working there, my contract was breached and I returned to Vancouver, BC, my home at the time, with a ‘bad taste in my mouth’ and disappointed that I could not finish the statue.

Although I knew at some point I would be creating with jade again, it took 14 years before I returned to the “Stone of Heaven”. I would buy the occasional rough jade piece from Jade West, and upon Kirk Makepeace’s (owner of Jade West) inquiries of when I would start carving jade, I would reply, “It’ll happen”.

Somehow I have always been intrigued by and attracted to less-than-perfect stones, perhaps sensing a parallel with human nature and all its flaws, giving each person his or her unique character and beauty.

As I wandered around the various piles of better-quality jade at Jade West’s extensive yard couple of years ago, ‘looking for a connection’, this small 6 inch broken Polar half-buried in the mud called out to me, “I am also beautiful, please take me with you and allow me to become THAT.”

Innately there is perfection and beauty underlying all manifested forms, no matter how rough, non-descript or even ugly it appears on the surface. To find that true beauty one needs to transcend the form and realize the profound Oneness with All Things.

It took a while before I understood what this little chunk of Jade wanted to be, and it was at the last stages of wet sanding when a deeply moving and emotional INSIGHT occurred; ‘my transition through the various sculpting media throughout the last 40 years was a reflection of my spiritual evolution, from wood, as an impressionable, sensitive young man, through harder and harder stones like marble to granite, then cast metals arriving to Jade, that hardest and most unforgiving medium, yet the softest and most beautiful when finished.

Shibumi Sculpture

So I titled the piece Shibumi and wrote this to go along with it:
a state of focus and presence that never before had I experienced.

“What name I can give you, little one?” I asked, pondering the deep and profound philosophical understandings, esoteric insights and recognitions of spiritual truths the creation of this piece afforded me. 

Then I found it . . . one word that embodies all these meanings, it is called Shibumi.

 Shibumi is a concept that perhaps arose in ancient times from the contemplative mind of a Zen Master as he observed the inherent drive in all things to experience harmony between the inner realm and the outer form, and I believe, also offered the integration of the two into Oneness. The secret lies in non-attachment.

So Shibumi describes the Path to Effortless Perfection – a state of Elegant Simplicity that is arrived at by discovery rather than achievement.

 Shibumi is the calm refinement underlying commonplace appearances.

It is understanding rather than knowledge; it is Eloquent Silence, Articulate Brevity, Modesty without Prudence, Authority without Domination; it is Spiritual Tranquility that is not passive, Beingness without the angst of Becoming, and it is Understated Beauty.

 Shibumi is a demeanor, a simple gesture, a personality, a flower arrangement, a garden, a philosophical understanding, an artistic creation, and an Art in itself, of Simplicity, Grace and Elegance.

Shibumi, of Heaven and Earth, of Jade and Metal, a reflection of the Sublime and the Mundane inherent in us all.

 Asking you to meet Your Self on new terms.

Shibumi by Georg Schmerholz

Georg Schmerholz

www.jade-fineart.com

www.schmerholz.com

Botryoidal Specimen With Pseudomorph

This Phenomenal Specimen was submitted to us for publication by Sam Gitchel of River Blossom Jade in California. Sam is one of the most knowledgeable men on the planet when it comes to his supreme passion and specialty of Botryoidal Nephrite Jade. His credentials are impeccable and his knowledge and passion unsurpassed. Sam  has had mining claims in Northern California for years, and is best known for his harrowing helicoptering of these remarkable Botryoidal specimens from remote areas. He runs his operation with his lovely partner Heron and his sons Tim, Sam Jr. and Andy as ’helpers’. Their Botryoidal Jades have been featured in Arts of Asia Magazine, Lapidary Journal and various other  publications. Several renowned Geologists and Museum Curators have helicoptered to his remote location mines for in-situ examinations of his extraordinary botryoidal nephrite claims, and is known as a man of high integrity with abundant ‘hands-on” knowledge in geology, mining, nephrite jade and testing procedures/laboratories. Due to the lack of abundant rain in the Northern California area in the past 2-3 years, Sam had been working on previously collected  specimens,separating the “bots” from their matrix material. While using his proprietary methods, he happened upon this incredible specimen of two pseudomorphs clearly sticking out of the botryoidal nephrite while stile retaining their crystalline structure. This specimen was found in the Eel River Gorge area of Northern California and has been tested by Sam to be of a Hardness of 5.5 – 6; indicating, as it appears, to be a fully mature pseudomorph. After reading the other pseudomorph posts here on TimelessJade.com.  Sam (who has only shown this specimen to a few other close friends) decided to share it with all of us who love Nephrite Jade and the many anomalies it supports.

David Fredericks

Antiquities, Plus…