100% In-Situ Shang Period Nephrite Kneeling Royal
Posted in Gemological & Geological Jade Articles, Jades From Other Perspectives, Jades Of Antiquity, The Awesome Feeling Of Jade on July 15th, 2009 by admin – 3 Comments
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 – Yulongwei — Phone: 520-991-2153 (USA)
