Fredericks-McIntire Collection Warring States Grey/Blood Jade Vessels
Measurements : Rhyton Cup – 14-1/4″ Height X 7″ Width X 3-1/4 Depth
Measurements : Dragon Vessel With Lid – 11″ Height X 9″ Width X 3″ Depth
In the second part of this series on crystalline nephrite and what we believe is the causation of true “chook bone / chicken bone” jade, we have chosen one of our favorites, a pair of ancient Zhou Dynasty vessels. Just to begin the process of the extensive cleaning was extremely hard for me to do, as they are so beautiful in the restored condition (as shown in the first three photographs above). However, knowing the vessels are authentic, and proving they are authentic and of the period stated (especially on controversial parts of our collection), are two different matters to us. The decision to clean both vessels extensively was based on repairs we could see under microscopic conditions; they appeared to have been performed during several different time periods after the vessels were first unearthed. There are pieces in our jade collection which we will not clean, as we like them as they currently appear, and our microscopic analysis can easily be upheld without further cleaning. There are also a few items we have which I would rather clean under the guidance of the professors of a museum, such as Beijing’s fine museum, or that of Shanghai.
As a matter of explanation, none of our jade collection is from what the scientific community, or those with ascending agendas, like to so commonly and ‘free-handedly’ refer to as “tomb robber” items. All our large vessels and unique specimens of jade were purchased legally (Pre-UNESCO Treaty) from private collections (mostly in China; however, some were acquired in Hong Kong and the USA), both by us and through our agent. We no longer acquire ancient artifacts from China (or any other country) because of the respect we have for the UNESCO Treaty agreement. As part of the negotiated price, these jades were obtained with the fore-knowledge that they would be throughly studied, and the research shared with the world, and upon eventual sale of the items, one half of the realized net price will be remitted to the families in China from whence the they came, through our authorized agent. This has always been our agreement, and this agreement will never change on our part. As ancient jades have for millennia been unearthed in China, and re-buried with the generation which had acquired them (either by purchase or by direct excavation) out of respect for the ancestors, and as that particular religious practice will not be judged with prejudice by us, we hold that all peoples have the right to their individual customs without others (including us) telling them what is right, or what is wrong. All taxes owed by us from the sale of our items will be paid in the USA, and we would fairly assume that all taxable incomes on the Chinese side will be remitted to the Chinese Government.
As there have been literally hundreds of hours spent on this one project alone, we hope everyone who is interested in the defining and the authentication of ancient artifacts will enjoy this article; it is our longest article to date. (As a side note: with my ribs currently healing very well, I shall be returning to writing more articles during the next year (with the exception of the time of our jade show at the Tucson Gem And Mineral Show), both here and on TimelessArtifact.com, with some examples being shown from China and also the America’s, that we hope will raise the interest in both cultures and heighten the debate on Diffusionism vs Separatism.
The first three photos above show portions of the grey/blood-jade vessels in their ‘as-acquired’ condition. The remaining photographs in this article will be of the pieces (including the myriad of microscopic photos) after having been cleaned in acetone and shot with our high-power jet water sprayer, to remove almost all of the final coatings of wax to which the vessels were subjected. They were also briefly soaked in oxalic acid (wood bleach) to break any bonds of dyes present, and were then soaked in household bleach for a short time, to start the process of illuminating (and eliminating) the dyes used. There will be a future article on these exact vessels after I have removed the rest of the dyes that were used in the last restoration process, and after we ‘Paleo-Bond ‘ the newly exposed natural cracks (for re-stabization), remove most of the effects of minor burning (used to make the waxes adhere in some places) and restore the vessels’ ‘luster’, using oils which help the jades retain vital moisture content and regain their beautiful shine.
In the three photographs above, we can start to see some of the effects of the cleaning process, and some of the aforementioned methods used during differing time periods of restorations. [Note: Please read this article very carefully, as there are portions (as in other articles here on TimelessJade.com) which are rather complex and do not always comfortably fit into the "accepted theories" on nephrite and jadeite, both of which were first handed down to us some 140 years ago. There are some new concepts to consider. We have found that 'science' nearly always tries to "pigeon-hole" both types of jade, and after spending thousands of hours on thousands of specimens, of both jade and jadeite (more exciting jadeite and nephrite specimen articles to follow in the next year), we simply do not believe or accept the absoluteness of the original chemical formula, nor the physical description of both jades -- instead, we believe quite the opposite is true - not all jades and jadeites are created equal - hence the scientific term 'jadeitites', coined largely by such institutions as the Natural History Museum of New York, the Smithsonian and Harvard's Natural History Museum].
First, it should be explained that burial jades are re-worked because of the natural tendency of both nephrite and jadeite to deteriorate under burial conditions. Even in the esteemed fifteen volume set of Gu Fang’s – The Complete Collection Of Jades Unearthed In China, one can find approximately 95% of the jades having had some type of re-working and re-polishing. Jade, under long-term burial conditions, degrades and more resembles a common, element-exposed rock, and all the wonderful colors of the original jades are ‘set free’ during these re-polishing efforts. The re-tooling is often done to bring out the highlights of the subtle original designs, as these finer lines were not deeply carved into the stone when they were first created, and many have been worn away naturally by degradation, via exposure to the various elements. The next reason burial jades are re-worked is because of breaks and natural fissures in the original nephrite, due to having undergone trauma of some sort over time, such as earth-shifts and falling rocks in cave-tombs, and both pottery and jade items break (and sometimes, even bronzes). If most pieces of burial jade were still in their natural, rounded, boulder form (as most pieces from the Khotan-Hetian region were originally found), they would have the degradation associated with long-term burial but not as many of the deep fissures and totally shattered parts we find on vessels, pei’s, ceremonial blades and bi’s, etc. Having been carved, however, these types of objects are much more susceptible to damage from tectonic movement and other causes, such as freezing and thawing. While much depends on the condition of original burial, such as tectonic movement (or the general lack thereof), soil conditions (such as highly acidic or alkaline soils), or moisture levels, some of the degradation which occurs can also come from a secondary burial far from the original site of internment. This could be a re-burial for ancestor-worship purpose, or a re-burial due to approaching war (for protection), or just to keep a sacred piece safe during times of unrest for a myriad of reasons. All of these reasons for re-burial take their toll on the original artifact, and must be taken into consideration when viewing a restored item under microscopic conditions. The trick, as in the two subject pieces of this article, is to go beyond the surface conditions and be able to identify the original tooling marks left behind, the identifiers of differing times of re-working of the vessels, and to do this, one must remove modern waxes or coatings of different types. Having researched jades by the thousands (from many different sources), and having cleaned and identified thousands of authentic artifact tooling-marks (even those that are so polished as to look new will sometimes still carry some marks of the origin, as will be shown here with microscopic photographs of minor places missed in the re-cutting and re-polishing process), and having studied thousands of simulates and replications, using the same manner of cleaning and microscopic investigation (we have definitely learned as much from the replications as we have from the originals), we are continually learning of new ways the replications and the Gaofangs (museum quality reproductions) were produced, mostly during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but which are still being produced today. Going back to re-burial of authentic artifacts, we again refer to Gu Fang’s – The Complete Collection Of Jades Unearthed In China; while studying the wonderful photographs, we find pieces that state they are from Qing Dynasty tombs that are of obvious archaic design. This could be because of their re-burial, or that the pieces are Gaofangs. However, we suspect the first possibility to be the correct one (unless we were able to examine some of these items to determine their authenticity), simply because the phenomena occurs around the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and works out logically with the re-burial theory – however, it never works in reverse, as Ming and Qing Dynasty jades cannot be found in the archaic burials. It is also curious to us, why the larger pieces do not show up in these marvelous volumes, as they existed as witnessed by Dr. Timothy William Jones PhD (who has worked alongside myself for the past two years) a few years back when given a tour of the sacred rooms in other places in the Beijing Museum, where he observed the grey/blood jades in a special room, along with other large archaic vessels. The massive Liangzhu Culture pieces are also missing from the volumes (such as the “King Cong” and other huge bi’s that have been displayed in archeological periodicals, along with the massive Cong on display in Taipei’s great Museum). It is understandable that some items could be perceived to be too sacred for common public viewing, and we will leave it at that for now.
As to the three photographs above, it is easy at first viewing to see the vessels have been cleaned, and some pieces have come off during that cleaning process. As we go deeper into the article, these will be explained in much more detail, and with the microscopic photographs which will accompany the descriptions, we hope to impart more knowledge on nephrite jade, some of its anomalies, differences in types of repairs, and the fact that things are not always what they seem on authentic period jade items.
The first vessel we wish to concentrate on is the huge Rhyton Cup with the Fenghuang as its major theme, with a small standing Dragon at its rear. We are going to concentrate on this vessel initially, because it is the vessel with the least amount of the pure red ‘blood jade’ inside the mostly grey nephrite. When Dr. Jones was viewing the similar blood jades in the Beijing museum, it was mentioned to him by one of his guides that the color of the blood-red portion of the jade was due to a copper intrusion in the jade (but we have never heard nor seen in print what causes grey nephrite). While we have not had the opportunity to test this using modern X-ray diffraction (in which a piece must be destroyed to be analyzed), nor by NIRS, in which the section tested does not have to be crushed and destroyed to identify its particular components. With these types of machines being in fairly constant need of re-calibration, we will for now take the Chinese expert’s word on the matter that it is indeed caused by a copper intrusion, much as yellow jade is a combination of pure white nephrite infused with high degrees of chromium and traces of iron. While studying the rhyton in depth, it appears that the copper alloy was a later inclusion, which happened sometime after the initial nephrite was created, some 30 miles below the earth. We firmly believe (as will be further explained here, and in many other examples and articles, some to be NIRS tested) that nephrite starts out as an igneous stone which forms deep in the earth, and much happens to it on its way up to the surface. Other examples of this igneous nature have been explored here in other articles, and much more will be presented over the next year to help prove that the samples we have examined have undergone extreme tectonic pressures that have broken the nephrite apart — nephrite healing itself as it further advances to the surface – and with the inclusion of differing minerals at differing times and stages during a long geological journey. In the rhyton cup, we find more evidence that the copper inclusion, while occurring long ago, still was a fairly recent event to the original nephrite from which these cups were made. On the rhyton cup, the copper-red blood jade occurs mostly along old fracture lines, as can be seen in photos two and three above. We will go deeper into this with the microscopic photos of both vessels, but the concept is best seen in the rhyton. Some areas of the rhyton fractures have very little of the blood color, and yet some are much more highly penetrated. These are not human dyeing efforts, similar to those of the Ming and Qing Dynasties’ dyeing techniques, which will be shown in later microscopic photographs, and explained by the areas of extremely deep blood color on other portions of the vessels. (We also welcome any qualified analyst to non-destructively test the jade for verification of our own microscopic analysis). In the first picture above, you are looking at a portion of the top rim of the rhyton vessel, which was fixed long ago by using a very dark cinnabar-to-black lacquer, which has withstood repeated burials and degradation for approximately 500 years, plus or minus a few (this will be shown to a much higher degree in the later microscopic photographs).
In the three photographs above, we are again looking at different parts of the rhyton cup to introduce some more of the basic principles for the article. First, we would like to hypothesize that during the Later Eastern Zhou Period, white jade was not as important as it has been assumed in previous written material here in the West. It is a fact that white jades have been known, used, and revered since the Neolithic Period in China; however, the supposed fact that it was only the Kings of the ancient kingdoms that were allowed to have white jade is proving to be a fiction. Again, citing Gu Fang’s – The Complete Collection Of Jades Unearthed In China, we find in Volume 10 many wonderful, translucent white jade artifacts which belonged to the Marquis Yi during the Warring States Period. What we are personally finding is that other colors of jade were preferred during the Eastern Zhou Period; for the most important burial items, grey to very dark grey were preferred for the special royal burial vessels. The older the design in these magnificent vessels, the more the color changes to include a wider spectrum. We certainly invite qualified Chinese museum professionals to view what we have discovered, and examine the pieces in our collection to see if they would concur with our recent findings. We currently believe that the whiter jades became more the fashion for the royal court closer to the Qin and early Western Han Dynasties. The fact that all the fine details seen in the above photographs can be easily discerned as re-cut or newer, is not in doubt at this time, and the microscopic photographs to follow (on both vessels) will provide the evidence of true age, as these vessels have surely been unearthed and re-worked several times, at the least.
In the first picture above, we can easily see the blood color following the natural fractures on the main portion of the Fenghuang’s legs, and in the trailing feathers which flow to the feet. In the second photo above, we are looking at the feet of the smaller rear Dragon, which were a much more recent break-and-repair than the one we showed on the edge of the rhyton lip, which is a very old lacquer repair. The repair to the feet of the Dragon was performed with modern petroleum glues, colored on the outside to resemble the old lacquer repairs, and totally fell off the vessel within a day of being put into acetone. The old lacquer repairs are totally unaffected by acetone (or any other solvent we have ever used), and we surmise that if soaked for a year, will still remain in place and be holding the old jades together. In the third photograph above, we are looking at the bottom portion of the Fenghuang’s feet, and seeing a fracture which never broke all the way through. This fracture line can also be seen on the top of the feet, and some repairs were done long ago, and more also in recent times, but the feet have never separated. All fracture lines on true old artifact jade vessels run from top to bottom and attest to the Chinese knowledge of working the nephrite, with its characteristic layering effects from this orientation. If the large vessels we have examined were to have been core-drilled and hollowed to the degree that they were, using the stone on its horizontal fracture-line axis, it is very doubtful they could have withstood the removal of the cores by ‘snapping’ them off. This would have forced the energy of the prying-and-snapping method to follow the fracture lines (most likely cracking the entire vessel), instead of snapping against the fractures, which allowed them to hold. As jade carvers know today, some of these original fractures, and the chatoyant characteristics of nephrite, can’t be seen with the naked eye (and indeed not even under microscopic examination), and it is quite easy to destroy a creation if the piece is not started along the correct axis, especially in the case of a chatoyant piece in which the chatoyance cannot be detected easily (this has happened to the author on several occasions). As we start to get into the microscopic photographs of (first) the Rhyton Cup, more of the subtle nuances of the coloring differences will be explained, and also fact that the vessel has seen more than one restoration. 
In the microscopic photographs, we are once again going to keep it at the three most common loupe powers of 10X – 20X – 30X (unless otherwise noted). This allows viewers who wish to conduct their own analysis to be easily prepared for their findings, once a piece is cleaned, at least to the degree of the two vessels above. Other articles showing how to detect certain age (in some items, even with re-cuts) have already been presented here on TimelessJade, and many more will be presented in the future. But here, we are doing a special article on approximately 90% cleaned artifacts, with a follow-up article coming in the future to show our own final restoration, using our own artistic license.
The above three photos were taken on an area where the feathered crest of the Fenghuang meets the tip of Rhyton cup. This area with the two cracks appears to have been totally separated during subsequent burial periods, but it in fact has not; each time, the cracks have split off into different areas which were more nephritic, which saved them from totally breaking off the crest, one of the wonderful aspects of the “toughness” of nephrite; if this item had been made of quartz or similar material, it would most assuredly have shattered into pieces long ago. In all three photos, we can see traces of the last repair in the now-pink areas, which were more red before the oxalic acid and bleach treatments, and bits of the repair glue, which was most likely a form of colored rubber cement we have often found being used in early 1920′s – 1940′s repairs. The older the rubber cement repair, the less likely it is to be highly affected by the extensive acetone bath, as old rubber cement will swell with the acetone, and when taken out will dry and shrink in size, but still hold, unless enough force is applied, in which case it sometimes separates. The high power water sprayer we use (which can put a hole into skin) will also blow the softened and swollen rubber cement repairs out of a hole if the rubber cement is not of sufficient age, or was not mixed properly. The knowledge of this, like so many other ‘tricks,’ lies in the experience with this type of cleaning method, along with differing types of materials, but one thing is for certain — this cracking of the feathered crest was not from an extremely old break, as were the approximate-Ming Dynasty repairs (and possibly some additional Qing Dynasty period repairs), as all the older repairs were performed with the far more adequate lacquer glues, which are affected neither by acetone, nor the myriad of other solvents we have ever used. In fact, on old lacquer repairs (and the original lacquer repairs when the items were first made, as not every piece held together perfectly through the years it took to make them), the jade will often degrade away during long term burial and the lacquer repairs will not be affected. Nephrite and jadeite are curious stones, to say the least; while being considered the ‘toughest’ of stones, they degrade at an exponentially higher rate than, for instance, common chert or flint. This can be easily verified by studying old Paleolithic and Neolithic Period chert and flint artifacts (and including other Paleolithic and Neolithic stone artifacts), and comparing them with original jade buried as late as 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. With artifacts of jade, one needs to look for the depth of the degradation, and if the piece comes from anywhere other than a known and dated archeological dig, one has to try to figure out the burial conditions as closely as possible. This will, of course, not always be correct, but there are some indicators which at least make sense, and which we have already and will continue to explore in our articles. In the above photographs, we can see bits of the rubber cement glues still adhering to the side of the cracked jade, and also start to observe the fact that the jade has degraded deeply into the stone. This will be delineated further as we go deeper and deeper into the article.
In the two photographs above at 20X and 30X microscopic power (the 10X got lost somewhere in editing — I’m only human, working with fickle computer equipment), we are looking at another portion of the rhyton cup that has sustained extensive degradation and fracturing, from what we believe to be areas of natural cooling of the once-molten, original nephritic stone. Yes, it could be a traumatic fracture from impact, or a result of a tectonic movements; however, since all the fractures, both large and small, and all the graining of these particular jade vessels align in this way (along with hundreds of other specimens we have observed under microscopic conditions), we tend to think of these as more indicative of the cooling nature of the original nephrite; this is found more often in Khotan-Hetian jades, for example, than Wyoming jades, as Wyoming jades tend to be more tightly fibered as a whole — but only as a whole, as there are these same anomalies found in nephrites of all the regions of the world that we have studied. This tends to become particularly apparent when many of our peers gather at the two shows we attend, and specimens start getting passed around, and evaluated under our microscope.
In the two photographs above, we can clearly see a repair made long ago with a lacquer glue, still bonding tightly to the surfaces of the crack, even though it is quite evident in photograph two (towards the viewer’s upper left) that the jade has continued to degrade in sliver-like fractures, and the degradation has penetrated deeper. We believe this repair is possibly part of secondary repair which could have been performed during the Qing Dynasty period, as it most definitely does not match the coloration of the much darker original repairs, which we would associate more with Ming Dynastic efforts. There are very few repairs of this type on the vessel, and we suspect that while sustaining further degradation during the presumed Ming period of re-burial, these repaired, re-cut and re-polished portions of the original vessels (which were unearthed again sometime during the Qing Dynasty), had minor additional repairs performed, prior to the final repairs and the dying of the cracks and re-cut portions we saw in the microscopic photographs above. Some of the last dyes can be seen as well, just under the lacquer repair, as the pink tint we will see much more of in later photos in this article. The portions above the repair appear to be part of the copper intrusion which occurs more in the cracks of this vessel, as though the fractured portions long ago exchanged ions with copper-bearing stones proximally associated with the original nephrite as it was rising through the approximate 30 miles to the surface. We shall show, in subsequent photographs, portions of pure blood-red nephrite which goes from a crystalline nature directly connected to a more fibrous but chatoyant nephritic structure, and then into a tightly fibered nephritic structure – all in the same microscopic photograph.
In the above three photographs, we find one of the areas of blood jade where the copper actually intruded deeply into the stone from which this particular vessel was made (patience is a virtue here, as in this article there will be approximately one hundred photographs, and by the looks of the start, it will be in excess of 15,000 words). In the last photograph above, we can see where the blood jade area is a bit more crystalline in the center of the photo, and as it flows out to the viewer’s right, we start to pick up the more chatoyant, yet fibrous nature of the nephrite (running vertically). In the first photo above at 10X power, you can see the more conventionally-known, very tight fibering in the darker grey area. One might expect the copper intrusion to have solely taken the path of least resistance and penetrated the grey nephrite at its weakest areas, but as we will see in microscopic photographs of the dragon vessel, this is not necessarily the case. However, it is clear that the copper-bearing ore did penetrate into some areas along the fault lines in the original nephrite, as is evident on both vessels – but is not an absolute. Some areas show only light intrusion into solid nephrite, some only along the fault lines, and some go to great depths into solid nephrite and indeed are totally nephritic. The color changes evidenced above are due to the microscopic equipment and its natural lighting ‘washing out’ the blood-red. In the non-microscopic photos, you will see portions on the vessels that are absolutely brilliant in color, naturally, with no dyes.
In the four photographs above, we are looking at factors that help in determining the vessel’s original date of manufacture. In the first three photos, we see an area at a minuscule broken tip of the ear of the Fenghuang on the rhyton cup which was never repaired since its original burial. The white spot in the middle of the broken-off tip is a bit of wax still adhering, from when we soaked the vessel in acetone for weeks, and then shot it with our water gun. The area to the left of the wax is original degradation with manganese deposits visible, which have grown as the result of extended burial time (another wonderful view of an even larger deposit will be coming later in this article). Some of the original degraded tooling marks can also be seen in the first three photos above, in the viewer’s upper left, where the old degraded ‘damage-zone’ cuts remain, and just under the broken tip of the ear (best seen in the top photo above). In the last photograph above, we are looking at an old fracture to the original jade. Some of the blood-red can be seen running along this fracture from the viewer’s right, across the photo about three-quarter’s of the way, until it hits a later splitting-fracture, which still shows the dye (now pink) from the latest restoration attempt. Further soaking in bleach should remove the last remnants of this dying attempt, to make the vessel more pleasing to the eye, in accordance with what the last restorer wanted. To us, the most defining feature is the whitened degradation which occurs in the middle of the last photograph above. This is true long-term degradation of an original fracture zone, and we certainly do not believe that it’s the result of any ‘burning’, or ‘acidifying’ trick used in the replicators’ art. We have heard rumors that the Chinese do not believe that jade degrades white, and whether this rumor is true or not, we have hundreds of specimens of both whitened artifact degradation, and whitened natural degradation of nephrite on even the highest of iron- content black nephrites. Truly, some are more soil impregnated, which gives then a browner coloring, but most are actually this type of white, as seen in the photo above. We believe the main difference is in burial or in-situ conditions; more flowing, oxygenated water over jade will produce the red iron oxide effects we see in some jades, while others, straight out of a vein of black Wyoming, will show almost a pure white from the lack of moisture and the lack of flowing oxygenated water, to name just a couple of examples.
In the three photographs above, we are looking at an area of re-cut designs on the feathers of the Fenghuang (many of these types of areas can be observed over the entire vessel). In progressive magnification of the same area, we are going from the first photo at 10X power to the last photo at 30X power. What is being shown in the three above photographs is an area where the feather lines have been re-cut through naturally degraded jade, and with the differing magnifying powers we can see an area which was missed at the end of two of the feathers. In the last photograph above, we can see several distinctive features of original Zhou Period age. To the viewer’s top left can be seen the end of a feather that was not touched in any of the re-cutting or re-polishing attempts, as the manganese deposits show up quite clearly at the feather-end as tiny black spots. Had this been re-cut all the way, this area would look the same as the more shiny and colorful areas of the feathers which have obviously been re-cut. We can also see the same missed tip of the bottom feather in the photo, and the deep original degradation. The more crystalline portion of this particular area of the jade displays the highest degree of degradation (as we find also in other specimens we own). We can also see what is either original Zhou Period soil penetration to the degraded nephrite, in the browner-looking areas toward the viewer’s left (which is also very common in some artifact jades, again depending upon conditions of burial), or soil penetration from a later burial (such as the Ming period burial in which we believe these vessels spent a prolonged period of time), but it is most definitely not a new addition of dirt applied to hide anything, as new soils or blackened soot (used to highlight designs from time to time) comes right off in the very first soap and water cleaning which every item we receive undergoes. Also to be found, if one looks closely at the area just underneath the bottom feather, are deeply degraded ancient tooling marks from the coarser grits which damaged the microstructure of the nephrite when it was originally worked. There are literally thousands of these types of areas, which we can show on a myriad of artifact jades to anyone seriously qualified and interested. In truth, some items can be identified (because of the almost complete re-cutting and re-polishing) only by a single area no larger than 1mm x 1mm. But it is enough, as we showed viewers when I was speaking at the Big Sur Jade Fest last October. These types of areas shown here are not the result of deep acid-etching, nor of fire-burning. (We will show some fire-burnt areas to the inside of the Dragon vessel in this article later on).
In the three photographs above, we are looking at the old lacquer glue repairs that were performed perhaps during two different time periods. I say perhaps, because I believe the darkest portions of the lacquer repairs are a very dark brown to almost black, and the areas surrounding them are of a much lighter color (the pink to the right, along the vertical crack, is the partially-removed dyes from the last restoration of these vessels). The biggest problem we face, of course, is that we were not there when the vessels were made, nor during the subsequent repairs, re-cutting and re-polishing efforts. However, using a bit of deductive reasoning, we can see how the vessels degraded, and believe the subsequent re-burial of these vessels would explain it best; the original repairs appear to be the darker lacquer sections (and we would believe these to be of a Ming Dynasty type of repair, as the Ming were noted for their literati studies of ancient jades, bronzes and all types of revered wares, along with other dark lacquers we have seen used during the Ming Dynastic period). As the vessel was re-buried for approximately another 400 years, further growth of the fracture lines occurred, which necessitated more lacquer repairs, and thus the came about the lighter-colored lacquer repairs, most likely in the late Qing Dynasty Period. Later we will be showing even more of the rubber cement-type of repairs in microscopic photographs, which will leave little doubt that they occurred at a much later date than both the original dark lacquer and the lighter lacquer repairs . For the regular close-up view of this area above, please refer back to the 7th photograph, at the start of the article (shown there on the frontal, top leading edge of the photo – remember these microscopic photos here were shot more from a side angle and show up much more clearly here). The dark Ming era repairs in the three photos above are best observed in photos one and three. In photo one we can see the darker lacquer repair at the top of the fractured nephrite, and also a bit at the bottom. In the last photo above, the darker lacquer repair can be seen at the bottom of the photo. Under the actual microscope, it is much easier to move the vessel around at differing powers and view these differences to a much higher degree — in the article, we have to have some ‘cut-off points’, but for those truly interested, there is always direct observation and testing of samples available.
In the three above microscopic photographs, we are again looking at an area on the Fenghuang vessel which has been re-cut and re-polished on a feathered wing section. In the top photograph, we can see how deeply the jade is degraded, along with its crystalline nature, yet just to the viewer’s right of the feather cuts, the jade is much tighter grey nephrite lying right next to the more crystalline (and polished) portion; the old restorers were, in our opinion, much more skilled than today’s restorers, as they knew better which sections had the tighter and less-degraded nephrite, and re-polished down to that level, then left it alone. Today’s jade carvers from all over the world know these anomalies of jade very well, and plan their creations to either fit around the non-homogenous areas, or incorporate them using softer grinding techniques, so that the final creations match in the varying sections of the jade. With today’s higher-speed drills (some 40,000 rpm’s), different techniques are needed, as the old drills used to create the masterpieces of the ancient jades never came close to reaching those speeds, or the accompanying vibrations, which mandate further planning and preparation. Also, to the left of the top photo is what appears to be root track, or minor fracture running off to the top left of the feather cut. The difference in color (as will be seen in additional photos) is caused by these lower areas not having been touched, even lightly, during the re-polishing efforts. In all three photographs above, we see both the more crystalline portions of the original stone (which seem to degrade the quickest), and also the fact that the person doing the re-cutting of the feather once again stopped short of going all the way to the original tips at the ends of the feathers. In photos two and three above, you are looking at a nearly in-situ portion of the original vessel, since the masters that re-worked these types of areas were smart enough to both recognize them as being extremely fragile, and knew enough to treat them very gently during the re-cutting and re-polishing stages. This is also why these areas are often waxed the thickest, as more of a protective technique and to disguise the degradation, leaving the hardest, tightest portions shiny and re-polished — again, not all portions of even the same jade boulder are exactly the same, and both the original artists and the restorers knew it well. This is a critical detail that was just never understood by the great scientist who first wrote up the original descriptions and chemical formulas on jade and jadeite some 140 years ago. We feel we must all go much further, as so much time has elapsed, and that time has been wasted looking at old ‘supposed knowledge’ about nephrite and jadeite; these assumptions have been treated as absolute truth, and some die-hards continue to maintain this stance, though we hope to sway their thinking with hard evidence, good science and forensic techniques, and rational, feasible, and sensible explanations. All these erroneous so-called ‘facts’ have caused more harm than good, by far, and it’s past time to replace them with correct information which holds up under close scientific scrutiny and examination.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking at an ancient drilling hole at the tip of one of the Fenghuang’s wings. There are still bits of the last coloring agent inside the drill hole, which have turned from a blood-red color to a more pink hue. This is because we choose, for this article, to not clean off all the residual effects of the different techniques, and especially the last restorations (as the old lacquer repairs will always stay on the vessels). What is meant to be shown in the three photos above is the original Zhou period tooling marks from the drilling of this area. The more whitish portions (not the ‘spots’) are where the hole was re-cut (sanded) and the original tooling marks lie in the very tightly-fibered darker areas which still have some of the pink coloring on top. This drill hole was actually originally drilled into one of the more deeply-intruded true blood-red jade areas, and as such, it still retains the color of its origin. In photos one and two, the microscope was trained to see the upper portion of the drill hole, while in the last photo, it was adjusted to take a clearer photograph of the lower section, which had been left undisturbed by the succeeding restorers. It is the old, smoothly-worn tooling marks of the original drilling, on a very tough section of the original nephrite, that we are showing here. You can easily see the difference between old, worn and smoothed (by time and elements) tooling grooves in the darker areas. The lighter areas have the whitened look of far more modern intervention and tooling. They are much smoother and have none of the old, natural worn look which only time and natural degradation impart. Again, these vessels will undergo a further intense cleaning, to remove the last traces of dyes, and smooth out some of the the newer, most obvious tooling marks, before they are finally oiled (and not waxed — with wax, the stone does not receive the proper moisture it needs, and if called upon to re-verify the items to an interested party (whether museum or scientific expert) or from necessity in a court of law, we would need only to dip them in acetone for a few minutes to remove the surface oils, and then be able to put both vessels immediately under the microscope.
So as to be less confusing, we separately included this additional area of the same photos above, but at a resolution of 45X power to further take you into the degraded and worn-out drill tooling marks. You can also see some of the whitened degradation in the softer portions of the nephrite, which in some places on the vessels, penetrates the entire thickness of the jade. This is not seen on acid-etched or fire-burnt pieces, but is a product of true dregradation into the less tightly-fibered portions of the nephrite, even occurring in minuscule spots.
In these last three photographs of the Fenghuang vessel (then on to the Dragon Vessel), we will be looking at the bottom portion of the feet which came off so easily in the acetone bath (and are shown to the viewer’s left in the 6th photograph of this article). In the first photo above at 10X, we can view the highly nephritic, botryoidal-looking section of the break in the grey jade center of the photo. As we approach the edges, we can see some of the original intrusion of the copper-red blood jade, in the more pinkish color. In photographs two and three, at 20X and 30X power, we are focusing more on the newer petroleum-based glues whose bonds so quickly dissolve in the acetone bath. As mentioned before, this area and the tail of the Dragon, on the lid of the Dragon vessel (also shown in the 6th photograph), both fell off the vessels in just one day in the acetone soaking, compared to the lacquer-glued areas which were not affected after three weeks of soaking, and the rubber cement areas, which were affected but still held in some places, even after the aggressive water-spraying. Besides the shininess of the colored petroleum based glue, in both the second and third photos, we can also see where the highly nephritic grey jade gives way to a much more crystalline area around the outskirts of the feet. This is how quickly all nephrites change composition, in areas that actually meet side by side, touching and morphing. The crystalline effect of Khotan – Hetian Jade is rather unique, and our explanation of why it formed is best found in our last full article on the Two Western Han Dynasty White Lidded Vessels – Part One this series. It is very dissimilar to the extremely tightly-fibered Black Edward’s Wyoming Jade and the Black Cowell, Australian Jade deposit found in 1972. Not knowing how deep and wide the Cowell deposit ran, we do know much more about the Edward’s Black nephrite, and have seen small veins, almost completely homogenous, with a thin white rind that came from the very “roots” of the long-ago degraded mountain in which it was born in the Pre-Cambrian Period – the oldest nephrite yet known on this planet. The smaller the vein, the quicker the cooling and seemingly, the tighter the fibering. It is to date, by far the tightest nephritic fibering we have ever observed under the microscope, and is indeed the only way we can tell the true Edward’s Black from, for example, the wonderful blacks of the Douglas, Wyoming area. The Edward’s Black is exponentially more tightly-fibered. More studies need to be done on this theory, but we believe it will turn out to be correct.
Now, moving on to the second of the two fabulous vessels, the Dragon Vessel:
As was explained earlier in this article, the Dragon Vessel shows not only intrusions of the copper blood-red jade, but there are complete areas that are totally blood-red in color, completely nephritic and absolutely stunning to view (as can be seen in the first three photographs of this article, and will be extremely visible once we do the final cleaning, repairing, re-polishing and oiling of these vessels). While Khoton – Hetian yellow jade and black jade are considered much rarer that the very sought-after white nephrite, we believe this true blood-red to be the rarest of all the Chinese nephrites. I have chosen this vessel to end the article not only because of the extreme (and to us, undeniable) blood jade, but because this vessel better shows the remaining premises of the article – that of how chook bone jade forms (on which we will go into extreme depth on the final article of this series, with a more-than-13″ long translucent white jade Warring States Pei, of the Period), the minor fire treatments this vessel endured during the last of the restorations, and also the variances in jade under both microscopic analysis and that of touch (which is the Chinese way taught to me by a now-deceased old Chinese man from California).
In the first three close-up photographs of the lidded Dragon Vessel above, we can clearly see the blood-red nephrite jade, which has been documented to have been found during the Warring States Period, and which our Dr. Jones has seen in the sacred vaults of Beijing’s Museum. What can only be observed in person is the true depth to which this blood jade has entered into and mixed with the dark grey nephrite from the original stone. We believe this is a secondary ‘melding’ of the stone on its way to the surface as a result of differing magmas melting some of the jade and mixing the copper with the original nephritic material. Portions such as the lightly intruded fractures of the Fenghuang rhyton vessel reinforce this belief. In the first photo, the blood-red jade runs clear through the tail section of the Dragon to a depth of 1″ – pure and solid – and nephritic in structure, with a slight tendency toward the vertical veining found in both vessels. (There are even places where chook bone still adheres to this blood-red portion, while other small areas were ‘shot’ out with the water-gun during cleaning – you will see in a later section of this article, and in the final one, why this will be so important in authentication, and supporting the theory on why and how the chook bone forms). In the second photo above, the red blood jade on the main surface of the lid penetrates the entire lid to a depth of 3/8th’s of an inch on the hollowed-out lid, and to a width of almost 2-1/2″; some areas showing the latest restoration’s pinkish dye can also be observed in all three photos. When the vessel was first made, this was a huge section of blood jade which extended in varying thicknesses clear up to the top of the beautiful flowing Dragon on the finial of the lid of this magnificent vessel. In the third photo above, we can clearly see the blood-red jade going down an area of the back, and the stylized scales of the bottom main portion of the Dragon vessel. On the second scale from the top on the back of this Dragon vessel, we can see an old, degraded-jade lacquered repair, running horizontally across the scale. This vessel being more masculine in nature, with its all-Dragon motifs, its more profuse true blood jade intrusions and infusions, and its being a lidded rhyton style cup, leads us to think it would most likely be considered the more important vessel of the two, when first conceived by the Master who designed them for the (likely) King who commissioned and owned them, and with whom they were very likely originally buried. We understand this may well be debated by others who read this article, as may also the time frames we put on the original construction and burial. However, since we know of no other such vessels in any Museum or private collection outside of China, we will of course defer to the Chinese experts of the Beijing Museum upon final analysis, for no less reason than that they are the only institution we know to actually own a collection of this type of rare vessels.
In the three close-up photographs above, we will delve into a few aforementioned factors on the vessels and begin to explain some fun things for all true nephrite collectors, whether experienced or novice. As can easily be seen in the first and last pictures above, the original blood jade is the same on the bottom portion of the vessel as was described on the top of the lid, in that the penetration of the blood-red reaches great depths. This is always an indicator of an original stone working, in that the top and bottom of the vessel portions were made from the same stone. Some vessels we have acquired have not always had this characteristic. Most authentic vessels, and artifacts in general, have had repairs (and sometimes multiple), and in some cases, new lids have been added after the originals presumably had been either lost or destroyed. (Always remember that the Qin Dynasty Emperor’s bronze Four Horses and Chariot were put back together out of well over 20,000 pieces; old artifacts look old, and have damage to some degree). One massive Khotan-Hetian blue jade vessel, which we believe is a late Yuan to early Ming archaistic vessel, had a lid which originally looked identical to a mated bottom; however, after cleaning, it was found that the lid had been entirely replaced with a blue serpentine lid with added serpentine dragon decoration, which was then dyed and waxed to look almost undistinguishable from the original portion; in our opinion, this does not diminish the original, but rather adds to the authenticity of the item. The bottom of this archaistic Zhou Era bronze-style vessel is of the Yuan to Ming period, and still retains two original broken feet, which had been later repaired with a modern glue, but is now apart once again. We have other Han Period vessels with new lids also, in which the lid is jade, but does not match the original nephrite vessel, and side Dragon decorations that have been broken off and new ones inlayed in their place – all this simply because vessels were broken during long or multiple internments in the ground, and some portions were so broken up that it must have been decided by the original restorers that it would be better to replace than to repair them (not just easier, as the old restorers were clearly not put off by intense labors). This is the true nature of authentic jades. They are not perfect pieces of ‘undisturbed, brown-wax- coated, little beauties’. To find old repairs is truly an authenticator’s dream, as they just don’t repair modern-made replications, even if they are Gaofang (museum quality reproduction) – at least, not usually.
While we are discussing the crystalline anomalies of Khotan – Hetian Jades, we should now describe the exquisite quality of the jades from this region of the world, best seen in the second photograph above. In the grey area of photo two is more of the finest jade we have ever seen, and areas like this attest to this high quality. One of the great New Zealand carvers once told me he hated to carve Khotan jade; as he said “It is way too hard and ruins my tools quickly”. The grey area you see in this photo is of the finest quality imaginable. It is why old jade degrades differently in differing areas, and is as tight and strong as any white jade we have ever seen or tested. Under the degradation on both of the vessels lies some of the most beautiful nephrite in the world. Here in the West, we ‘know’ to feel a piece of jade and tell it by whether it is ‘cold’ (or, conversely, warm) . Besides being one of the most unreliable tests for jade (as all rocks feel cold to the skin on a cold day, if exposed to the outside temperatures), it is the farthest thing away from what a true Chinese master is feeling when they touch the stone. You never see Chinese Masters grabbing jade and handling it roughly, or tossing it up to feel its weight, or putting a piece up to their cheek to feel if it is cold. NO, what you will see, if ever you meet a true master of jade, is the extreme reverence they feel when they believe a piece is made of true Khotan jade. What you will see (even if the piece is large), is the Chinese Masters cradle the piece and ever so lightly run a finger over the jade. What they are ‘looking’ for is not the ‘coldness’ of the jade, but rather two other things – they are feeling the weight of the stone, for certain, but what they are truly feeling for, with those most sensitive of fingers, is the Khotan jade’s tendency to ‘rob the heat’ from the skin itself. On these particular vessels, they would feel the heat being ‘stolen‘, by some of the finest grey jade ever discovered, in such a way that the purity, a ‘sacredness’, could actually be felt. When they run their soft fingers from the grey straight to the blood-red, they would feel the blood jade pull out the heat ever so much quicker. With the copper alloy, it has this tendency simply because it has heat conductive properties. This is the way a Master feels jades and only the finest jades of Khotan have this feel. Yes, it takes years of practice to become accomplished at this technique, but the old masters learned after touching so many specimens that this is the surest way to tell the quality of real jades (no jade we have ever tested for thermal conductivity even comes close to Khotan jade; the closest, though quite a bit lower on the scale, is the variegated Lake Tai nephrites – so well known from the Liangzhu culture — even with their more ‘platelet structure’, they still out-perform all other nephrites we have ever tested, and we have literally run over two million of these tests on jades from all over the world. The only close exceptions are the two jades mentioned just below from British Columbia). While beautiful and homogenous mutton-fat jades (which are so popular now, as they were in the Han and Qing Dynasties in particular) are compared in this way to finest grey and translucent white jades of the same region, they fall short of this ‘perfection’ of touch. I personally like mutton-fat jades but absolutely love the deep, perfect greys and the translucent white jades the most, of all I have ever touched (while I can honestly say I have never touched a jade I didn’t like, I have also never felt anything else like the jades of Khotan). The nephrite jade closet to this pure perfection that I have ever felt is Kirk Makepeace’s – Jade Mine – Polar Jade, but even more so, the bluish/green-tinged, darker Mt. Ogden jade specimens we wrote up here on TimelessJade.com. Those two particular jades have come the closest to what I have found in the finest of the Khotan – Hetian jade, the original Stone of Heaven.
The last thing we wish to make note of here (before going into another amazing factor on these two vessels) is the inside portion of the last photo above. This is the portion to which, during the last restoration of the vessels, the most fire burning (to adhere the brownish coatings) was applied. We will show other portions in the microscopic photos of this vessel which are still fairly in-situ and have not had the fire treatment. The reason the insides of the vessel were treated to this high temperature burning was most likely because they were the areas which could be abraded away with near impunity, and would have not shown up the same under the final coatings that were applied. This, we find on almost all old vessels – to grind away with impunity on the outside of the vessels, where the designs are so intricate, would obviously not be wise, when trying to show and preserve the artifacts. But inside, it is a much different matter. They are trying to abrade away much of the degradation (which often occurs a bit more deeply in both jade and bronze vessels, because that is where they tend to hold the most water during long term burial). The insides of some authentic vessels of jade have a very wavy feel to them from this attempt to remove the degradation, but in places where there has been deep, through degradation, the restorers (and especially the old master restorers) would know this area would be extremely sensitive to harsh abrasive grinding, and would mostly leave it alone. That is why we find the most through- degraded portions to be the least touched, even from the inside, and this leads to the wavy feel as they followed the degradation with abrasives in the manner that best suited the situation. The reason for the light fire burning is because the heat from the fire shatters the nephrite to a very light depth, if it is performed correctly for the purpose of adding a coating. This allows the brown waxy coating to adhere, without altering the jade to anything but the most minor of depths (as will be shown in the follow-up article as we clean most of it off very easily); good quality nephrite starts to polish and the light fire burning starts to disappear very rapidly, using only #200 wet & dry sand paper with water. This can then be finished off using #400 grit wet & dry, and then a light final #600 grit wet & dry, before the oiling process. When you see the final restored vessels, we believe everyone will understand our reasoning to show the original portions of the vessels, along with the various repairs at differing times.
In the three above close-up photographs, we are showing just how badly this Dragon vessel was damaged during its original and subsequent burials, and yet the vessel held, and was never truly ever broken into two parts. From the very beginning photographs of this article, the extremely large crack on the Dragon vessel can be discerned. Photos of the sides and of the lid and upper rim portion of this vessel are all through the article, showing this massive diagonal crack which has been repaired more than once, for certain (microscopic photographs of the crack are coming). The three photographs above were chosen to show just how precarious this crack was, and still it never let go all the way. Most likely the old Ming era black lacquer glue repairs helped in holding the vessel together, but as we will see, there are only two minuscule portions which kept the vessel intact over the thousands of years since its creation. These can be best viewed above where the modern dyes were applied and are now being pulled out of the original cracks (these will be further removed as we continue to restore the vessels, but for now they serve the purposes of this article perfectly). The largest area that is original and still held together can be best seen in the top photograph above, in the area between the two leaching dyed lines; if looking straight on the front of the vessel, it lies on the left side. At its narrowest point, it is only 1/4″ apart. The other amazing portion which saved the vessel is on the right side if the viewer is looking head-on, and best seen in photos two and three above, on the area just below and to the right of the ear of the main Dragon, and just to the viewer’s right of where the large feathers come off the mouth area and meet the flowing feathers coming off the top of the Dragon’s head. The area that is still holding on this portion is only 2mm wide. It may be wider inside the jade, but on the outside, this is all that has kept the vessel intact at the end of over two thousand years. Also of note, in the last photograph, is the darkened area of the feather-cuts in the flowing section coming off the mouth. This is an area, as mentioned before, in which none of the past restorers wanted to work aggressively (because of its fragility), and is one area which is almost entirely in-situ. The darkness in the feathers is degradation and soil penetration, which can viewed even with the naked eye.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking at the area described in the previous paragraphs just above – the area where the vessel most precariously holds its integrity. In the first photo above at 10X power, we can easily discern the old repairs as being original lacquer repairs, by the following characteristics: the color of the lacquer glue, the fact that they still hold tightly, even after their prolonged soaking in acetone and resistance to removal by the water gun, and the darker degradation around the original glue. This side-to-side degradation is an extreme indicator of age and extended re-burial after the initial repairs were performed, most likely around the Ming Dynasty period. The signs of polishing marks with heavier grits, seen in the first photo, appear to be of the period when the vessel was first cleaned; however, they could be lighter re-polishing marks from a later Qing Dynasty repair attempt. Some of the marks look newer but not modern, when viewed under the microscope. Some of tooling marks at the top of the photo appear to be original to the vessel (but we will show even finer examples as we go along). In the last photo above can be seen old polishing marks that we would say would be most assuredly from the older Ming period , as they have degraded much more and can only be seen as faded grooves. The modern dyes from the last restoration hardly need to be mentioned except that they stand out in such contrast to the older repairs, and most likely date to the period when the rubber cement repairs were made (some great microscopic photos of these later rubber cement repairs are coming also).
The three microscopic photographs above were taken in a more crystalline portion of a fracture point on the Dragon vessel, and show where the dyes were added into the further-fracturing nephrite. As the dyes ‘bled’ out under the bleach, they covered a very in-situ area which had been left alone by previous restorers. What you are looking at in all three photographs is a rather large manganese growth (in terms of Chinese jades), which the re-treating dyes had spread over and covered. This is not an old lacquer repair (although there could be some old lacquer under the area) but true manganese growth. It lies in a slightly depressed area which was created during the original construction and abrasion of the artifact. These tiny dips can often be found even in brand new carvings of jade, if the abrading tool sits just a little too long on one area of the stone. This can be evidenced here by the discolored, soil-impregnated surrounding area (as best seen in photos one and two above), which is the result of being in the aforementioned depression, and when later re-polishing attempts were made, they sanded the piece over the depression, but not enough to level it out with the surrounding areas. This type of manganese growth, as shown here, is rare in the more northern items of jade (which we believe this to be, for reasons too numerous to mention in this article, but there are mentions of other manganese growths in other articles here, and more will be presented both here on TimelessJade.com and at our TimelessArtifact.com site over the coming year), and for an authenticator, its discovery on an artifact is a ‘pure jewel’ to find while microscopically hunting for age authenticators.
In the three photographs above, we will be looking at two differing structural qualities mentioned in this article – the extremely homogenous, nephritic portions of the blood jade, and a casual glance at how we believe true chook bone jade forms. The tightly fibered areas of the blood jade portions of the vessels can easily be seen — much in contrast to the more fracture-intruded portions described above, and the more crystalline portions we have seen with the microscopic photographs. The bright red sections in this part of the vessel are the true, pure blood jade, and as can be seen in the less red parts of the photos is degraded blood jade that is turning white in this process. Evidence of original damage-zone tooling marks can also be seen in the vertical lines in the photos above. These, again, started as micro-fractured tooling marks from the original heavier grits which were used when the designs of the vessel were first being roughed out, and because they were microscopically fractured, they always start and continue the degradation process, as they are the first areas where water and acid or alkaline soils first penetrated the finished, polished artifact. These areas are usually easily found on cleaned jades, in the holes that have been drilled and in little areas where it was originally harder to polish. Some of the ancient artisans took more time removing these portions, and some took less – and then there are always two other factors to consider – one being the competency of the master carver, and the other, the time constraints under which the carver had to work (some Royalty, upon dying, may have had to have items rushed a bit, and it is not uncommon in old Zhou burial sites to find pieces that look as if they were blanks, barely carved to shape, with the final designs never having been completed). In the whitest areas of the photos above, we can see the deepest areas of degradation, and these are the areas in which the chook bone seems to develop the most and the deepest. We believe these areas form by the process of hydrolysis that accompanies the degradation process. As the jade begins to degrade under exacting condition of high moisture content, but not with highly oxygenated, flowing water, the same process we find in healing quartz crystals (which are high in silicates, as is nephrite), and in the filling-up process of geodes, the silicates in the jade start to ‘heal’ the degrading jade. It will be in our final article of this series on a massive Warring States Period Pei where we will explore this phenomena the deepest, showing microscopic photographs of the process in great detail.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking at a dark lacquer repair, most likely of the Ming Period, which has continued to fracture (from subsequent long-term burial) and still holds most of its original integrity. The pinkish looking tinge in all three of the photos above is the remnant of the latest modern repair, but we will not be concentrating on that aspect in these photographs. In the last photograph above at 30X power, we can see the extremely old degradation inside the old Ming dynasty repair in the viewer’s upper right corner. In the lower left corner, we can see where the old lacquer glue flowed into an old design cut in the vessel itself, and subsequently split under additional pressure from secondary burial. The old lacquer glues (as explained in other articles) will hold and not dissolve under any of the many different solvents we have tried over the years. If it could be called a ‘fault’, then its one fault is that it is susceptible to sideways impact and will fracture if given a strong enough sideways, snapping pressure. The obvious care given the tiny bits of degraded and fractured nephrite pieces is often another clue to the age of the restoration. We have found that the more modern repairs of artifacts tend to be much less careful on the whole, and in some cases, the person who repaired some of the artifacts we have authenticated should never been allowed to touch the piece, in our opinion. Some more modern restorations were performed by inept amateurs, and what could have been wonderfully restored jade artifacts instead were almost totally destroyed by carelessness, when if in the hands of a Master restorer, the same items would have been treated with reverence and would not end up as ‘scarred’ up losses with mostly deep, white tooling marks left from coarse abrasives and modern high speed grinding methods, and would have had remnants that were much more verifiable original tooling marks for purposes of authentication. Another fine aspect to the photographs above can be best viewed in the first photo; in the vertical groove above the lacquer repair can still be seen a minor degraded tooling mark where the piece is not as deeply cut as it is to either side. Perhaps initially it was less distinguishable to the original Master finisher of the piece, and since it did not ever receive the deepest original heavier grit-work, degraded slightly less aggressively than other portions. There also appears to be what could be a very old healed fracture running horizontally through the area (other old healed fractures, which occurred long before this jade was ever touched by man, do occur on the vessel, and can be verified).
In the three above microscopic photographs we are again looking at an old lacquer glue repair, but one which we believe might have come after the Ming Dynasty period and was perhaps performed during the Qing Dynastic period. We base this solely on the facts that the lacquer glues do not match the more affirmed Ming-period, darker lacquer repairs, and that the vessel most assuredly sustained additional fracturing and degradation, possibly due to freezing and thawing, etc, prior to distant repairs in possibly the Qing Period. The absolute authenticating identifier in all three of the microscopic photographs above is, again, the manganese deposits, which can be easily seen below the lacquer repairs. The manganese is growing in dendritic fashion into the degraded jade, and was repaired because when the vessel fractured, the underlying section of the repair slipped just under the upper portion from a release of pressure. We often see this in old pottery items, from when the firing process ‘pulled’ the clay; when it is broken, it releases the pressures created during the firing, causing the displacement of the parts. Since this was a hollowed-out vessel, we certainly expect the same type of principle of shifting to have occurred here. Hence, when the vessel was subsequently re-polished, the sanding process followed the higher portions and left this undisturbed section with the manganese dendrites, original soil penetration to the degraded nephrite, and even the original, vertical sanding marks, which can be best seen in the final photo above.
[Note: These vessels have been displayed at four of our previous Jade Art Shows, and will be available for viewing during the one coming in February of next year - whether I will have them finished in time for viewing during the Tucson Gem And Mineral Show is uncertain, due to constraints on my time that seem to be mounting - but either there, in our gallery, or in our home, they will be available for viewing in whatever state of restoration they may currently be in].
In the three photographs above, you can see where the original dark, Ming Period lacquer repair filled an indented area along the side of the vessel (shown from the very first photographs of this article). This is an area that held so tightly, using the old style lacquer glue, that it never came apart again, and the subsequent, more reddish lacquer was never applied . What we see on top of the dark, old lacquer is the remnant of the last gluing attempt using rubber cement as the adhesive agent (the ‘dots’ are air bubbles in the cement, which can also be seen on modern plastic replications of ivory and lacquer ornamental items). By the way the rubber cement held up during the long soaking in acetone and the high pressure water spraying, we would consider the glue to have been applied somewhere around the 1940′s era – give or take ten years or so. Once again, we can see the tan-colored damage-zone scratches from the original heavier grits used when the vessel was first made, as they continue their degradation, having been the first places where the nephrite started to be intruded because of their more damaged microstructure. Again, this must have been a slight depression from when the vessel was first made, as we can see these original degraded tooling marks on both sides of the repair, with the old lacquer and rubber cement still lying nicely inside this depression today, after subsequent restorations of the vessel.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking at the area of the feathers, to the side of the main, open-mouthed Dragon where the vessel almost split in half, but held. We can see the darkened, old Ming Dynasty period lacquer glues which were very carefully applied to the very degraded tooling marks of the feathers. The fact that they do not reach to the outside of the feather would indicate to us, that these repairs were very carefully ‘strung’ into the developing crack, much like when our modern glues start to lose their viscosity and will then create a ‘string of glue’ following the removal, of say, a small brush applicator. This ‘string’ of lacquer was then most likely very carefully laid down into the crack and left to adhere and dry. We can see in the above photos the glue does not look like it was forced down with pressure and then the excess sanded away. As described before, the master restorers of old not only knew what to use, but how to use it, as the Chinese masters of all the arts, have been for millennia been known to be some of the finest craftsmen and most ingenious workers this planet has ever known. The deep degradation to this portion of the vessel was most assuredly helped along because of the crystalline nature of the jade which can easily be seen in this portion of the surface – to its left, an inch away, is some of the tightest, finest light grey nephrite which has now been re-polished to a brilliant luster. This is what we find in old, authentic, verifiable jade artifacts (especially on the larger pieces) — this non-homogenous nature of nephrite, as it is truly not just one structure but rather a conglomerate of structures that form and re-form over time and pressures and heating and re-heating. Yes, you can find small areas that are perfectly homogenous, even in Khotan jade, but that is using a small sample and calling it the norm while ignoring the whole.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are again within an inch of the crystalline, fractured feathers, just on the tip of the Dragon’s right ear, which can be clearly seen in the very first photo of this article. This is a very small area of pure blood jade that was incorporated into the design of this magnificent vessel, executed by the Masters of what seems a long ago and now nearly forgotten era. In the first photo above, you will notice a yellowish ‘inclusion’ around the tightly curled blood jade of the ear. This is, in fact, old burial mud and not an added feature from the last restoration. In our opinion, it would date from around the Ming era and not be original to the piece. However, it is almost ‘rock’ hard, has stood up to the repeated cleanings and water gun spraying, and is curiously the same color as we see in the deepest original degradation. Could it be a remnant of original tomb dirt? It is possible. In all three photographs above, we see another very curious anomaly in the line with the yellowish cast that abuts the area where the blood jade meets the grey nephrite. As we go deeper in magnification in this area, we can see a clear line of demarkation between the two. The grey appears to be a bit more uplifted and ‘grainier’ than the re-polished blood jade area. To us, this could mean a place where the two jades were long ago forged into one by melding heat while still deep in the earth’s mantle, or it could be a long-ago healed fracture area (I had some great photos of one, but had to make a cut off somewhere – these healed fractures still remain and can be viewed by any qualified, interested party).
[Today, it seems, the art world, the auction houses, and indeed even most of the nouveau Chinese collectors of Manchurian-Era white jades seem to be trying to have us all believe this was the only color of jade which was used, or of any importance, and of which thousands are made each year in the jade factories, along with their 'mutton-fat-white-quartz' counterparts, not to mention the recent sale by a US auction house of pure white Peking Glass pieces, proffered as white jade, which we had previously 'de-authenticated' (as not jade), and which are extremely easy to prove as such. Citing Gu Fang's - The Complete Collection Of Jades Unearthed in China - we find the old and original Masters of jade carving actually loved the intricacies and variations in The Stone Of Heaven, even to the point where some of the old Shang Period blades have some beautiful and massive pseudomorphs running through them. Still, there is time to change that which has been done, and put the original Masters' works back into their proper place, one of respect and appreciation for their great skill and talent, the result of which is art that is revered by the old ones who understood the importance of the pieces, and reverse the shame of having placed them into near obscurity. (Please understand: this is the opinion of this author only).] Please Note: The above statements, in my mind, do not include the wonderful Museum collections, like Harvard’s Grenville Winthrope Collection, nor the Smithsonian’s, or any other viable collections of museum archaic jades – they pertain to marketing techniques of so-called experts from the private sector, who seem to wish to control the thoughts, opinions and monies of folks from all over the globe. We hold only the highest respect for those who not only enjoy the ancient artifacts of the past but devote their lives and careers to education and conservation of these artifacts.
In the three above photographs, we are looking at an area of the blood jade where it melds with a much more white nephrite portion on the very top of the lid of the Dragon vessel. In the first photo, we can best see where this took place; in fact, there are even portions that have the most wonderful red to white to yellow shades that so resemble the tasty Queen Anne Cherries of our Oregon, USA area. Comparing these photos to the ones just above, we can easily discern the differences in composition and color, which is part of the reason this exquisite example of a large nephrite stone was chosen for such an important vessel. To those who know jade and love its feel, seeing and feeling the differing structures of nephrite which compose this masterpiece of ancient jade workmanship, is a dream, to not to mention the true genius of the original Masters who created it over 2,000 years ago.
Switching gears here a bit, we are going to show a small preview of what to expect in the next Part Three of this series of articles. The next article plans to be much more in-depth, about what you will see above with much finer microscopic examples, some in much higher magnifications than the ones above. What we are seeing along the back decorations of the main dragon on this vessel is a place where old polished chook bone jade was formed over years of long-term burial. We can see the chook bone in the darker, soil-intruded area running vertically (to the viewer’s right of the photo). Right next to the chook bone effect we see an area that is minutely crystalline in formation, and in all three photos, we can see where the once-adjoined sections of chook bone have now been chipped away. Some of the loss of the original chook bone was due to the previous restoration attempts and the re-polishing efforts that were used. Some of the loss came from our high pressure water gun, as we were first cleaning the vessel long ago (we took much more care in the final stages as we had started to realize what this was). The chook bone had not fully formed and was a light coating at best but it still shows the difference between the degraded jade below and the slick look of chook bone jade forming on the sides. In our next article, you will see chook bone jade of varying depths, as not all jade degrades at the exact same rate; some of the nephrite is tougher and more tightly-fibered than other areas, but you will, in the next article, see all the differing types, and the depth to which this phenomena occurs.
In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking down inside the drilled hole in the Dragon vessel and can see portions of the original Warring States Period drilling marks. Even after several re-workings of this vessel, there are many areas in which original period tooling marks can be found, but we choose this particular area because many of the other drilled areas still have deep degradation to them, as can be seen still clinging to the sides of the drill hole above, in the whitened area. The pink area is some residue still adhering from the last dyeing technique. It is in the darkened areas where the old degraded damage-zone tooling marks lie. These areas have been either lightly touched by one of the restorers, or they have ‘sloughed off’ the degraded, developing chook bone. In the last photo above, we can clearly see the lines left by the coarser grit material as the vessel was drilled to a depth of approximately 5 mm in an area of the flowing feathers coming off the right side of the mouth on the Dragon vessel.
In the three photos above, we are looking again at original Warring States Period tooling marks still remaining on the curl of the eyebrow on the left side of the smaller Dragon on the vessel’s lid. In the first photo at 10X power, we can see the eyebrow itself and the old Ming Dynasty re-cutting of the grooves in it, with just small portions of original Warring States period grooves still etched into the eyebrow on the upper portion. However, in the swirling section of the drill hole to the right, we can see all the original tooling marks of the period. This is an area where the nephrite jade is extremely tough and tightly-fibered, and took on the least degradation. Portions of it were most likely cleaned a bit over the subsequent restorations, but the hole itself was never re-drilled, as it must have had enough depth originally and was tough enough to withstand much of the degradation process. In the grooves of the drilling hole, we find original sediment that has stayed intact and adhered for at least centuries, as they were never removed during the Qing Dynasty period, nor in the last restoration of the vessel. By the way they look under even higher microscopic powers, there is good chance that some of these deposits and degradation are from the original burial.
To give a better view of the tooling marks in the eyebrow itself, we have included these two photographs at 20X and 30X powers, shot in the same place as the first photograph above. If we go back to the first photo in the last series, you will see the oldest of the cut marks at the very top of the photo – these are the ones we would consider original Warring States Period tooling marks, as they both had been degraded and polished away after recovery from burial, and some remnants still remain in the very rough and deeply degraded damage-zone, especially on the tiny one that is just a minor portion of the original cut. In the two photos above, we believe we are seeing Ming dynasty era re-cuts in the three shorter tooling marks on the eyebrow, and the longest two (only one shows at 30X), the re-cutting from an early Qing period. If it were a later Qing Dynasty cut mark (which goes all the way across the eyebrow), or even a later Republic Period re-cut, it would have the whitened look of a newer re-tooling now that all the coatings have been removed from this section. We can definitely see the high quality of jade and tightness of fibering in this portion of the vessel, and as such, it has taken on a beautiful shine with the re-polishing, which was most assuredly a Qing Dynasty hand re-polish, as there are no modern sanding marks to be found on it, either. It looks much more worn by touch and time than a new modern re-polish would look.
The three photos above were taken on the inside portion of the modernly re-glued-on bifurcated tail of the Dragon on the lid. We wanted to show once again both the deep penetration of the blood jade into this portion of the tail, and also the unmistakable crystalline aspect of this portion of the original nephrite stone. In all three photographs above, we can see the deep degradation from long-term burial, which in no way resembles modern attempts at fire burning, nor acid etching. This is original white degradation to the tail area, as will be further delineated in our last microscopic sets of photos.
In the four microscopic photographs above (the last one taken at 45X power), we are looking at one of only two conically drilled holes that we could find on either of the vessels described in this article. There are large core drill remnants at the bottom of each vessel, where they were never fully polished out, and there are the much more common bronze rod-holes (as seen just above in the eyebrow section), and there, they leave the distinctive tip in the middle of the hole due to the grits wearing away the bronze rod in a U shape – which in turn leaves the tip we so often see inside the drill holes. These little conical holes (much more like old Neolithic Period drill holes) only occur on the very outer tips of the top Dragon’s ears, on the top of the lid. The photos above show where manganese entered and grew in these tiny holes (just over 1mm wide at the top portion of the holes). These were probably plugged by some type of soil and detritus very early on in the original burial, and the manganese attached and grew in its usual crystalline form on the sides of these conical holes.
In the three photographs above, we are looking into the grooves of the blood jade, bifurcated tail and seeing the remnants of the old drilling marks which have mostly been polished away, but still demonstrate the fact that these coarser grit drilling techniques caused the sub-strucure of the original jade to become damaged microscopically, and will continue to degrade first and deepest, because this is where the degradation first starts to take hold in ancient jade artifacts (as poorly-polished new pieces will, eventually). Earlier, we talked about how some areas were harder for the original masters to polish, and that these places show up mostly in the drill holes and the areas which were hard to access for the polishing work. In the final three photographs of this article, we will see this exact effect in the bottom groove drilled into the underside of the tail, and the groove just below this one as it sits on the Dragon lid.
In the above three microscopic photographs, we are looking at an original Warring States Period drilled section of the bifurcated tail on the Dragon’s lid, which has never been re-cut or re-polished. All tooling marks, degradation and soil penetration are exactly as they should be, even after the extensive cleaning that this vessel withstood. This tooled portion lies just underneath the one photographed in the previous referenced section just above. Now, all the artists, museum employees, and jade aficionados can finally see what I have seen in these vessels for so many years – the true blood, nephrite jade, which is so rare (there are tiny intruded samples in our collection, and those that we have provided to Peter Shilling of Taking Form Jade, and in the collection of Warren Rees, a master carver whom I sincerely consider my mentor, friend, peer, father figure, and a brilliant nephrite connoisseur).
I hope all of those who read this article will consider the passion for both of the jades I share here with them, and the reasoning behind why I cleaned the vessels to further educate, both myself and any other interested jade lovers and students.
David Fredericks – Yulongwei
Phone # 520-991-2153 (USA)
TimelessJade.com
TimelessArtifact.com
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