Imperial Jade

A jewelers dream became true at the Myanmar emporium in Yangon.

On display were slabs of Imperial Jade of various colors and sizes, shining star sapphires, luscious golden pearls and  rare pigeon’s blood rubies.

Imperial Jade is somehow transparent and emerald-green, it contains chromium. Imperia jade is the most rare of all jade types. An intense green color combined with translucence makes a real good quality jade. Jade has a high value sometimes prices are even higher than for than rubies and emeralds. Sometimes low qualities of jade is dyed green. Purchase jade jewelry only from reputed stores, otherwise you will get a bad surprise Green glass stones and other natural stones are used as imitations of jade.

Rough Imperial Jade blocks ranged from a small 2 kg rock of a remarkable deep green prized Imperial Imperial Jade valued at a staggering US$300,000 to a two-ton boulder of light green Imperial Jade lined with dark green veins at a reserve price of US$180,000.

All kind of Imperial Jade and Imperial Jadeite items. Beautiful translucent green Imperial Jade, Imperial Jade bangles in all kind of color shades. Deep green Imperial Jade rings , Imperial Jade sculptures depicting mythological figures, marvelous Imperial Jade jewelry, some small and bigger Imperial Jade elephant, plenty of information on Myanmar or Burma Imperial Jade products is available.

The Imperial Jade products on display are overwhelming some of them show some  Imperial Jade history. Imperial Jade comes in all varieties at the Yangon emporium, like Imperial Jade art, Imperial Jadestone, Imperial Jade pieces, rocks of raw Imperial Jade fresh from the Imperial Jade works in the Imperial Jade mines.

There are all kind of imperial jade, like imperial green jade, imperial jade bangle, imperial jade earrings, imperial jade ring, imperial jade pendant and plenty of other imperial jade jewelry. Ancient jade is almost all times defined as Chinese jade or China jade, which was true until more than 1000 year ago since that time most of Asian jade is Burma jade, Burmese jade or Myanmar Jade. Black jade is rather seldom and blue jade comes mainly from Guatemala and Honduras. Very attractive are Imperial Jade jewelry items in lavender, purple and white color, actually Imperial Jade comes in almost any shades of color. Imperial Jade Shop with jade gem quality Imperial Jade Shop Jade bangle, jade bracelets, jade earrings, jade necklace Carving jade is a special art mainly performed in China. Chinese jade jewelry always has some caeved elements. Gemstone jade is almost all the time green jade. Jade bangle, jade bracelets, jade Buddha, jade earrings, jade necklace, jade gifts and jade pendants are usually made from none gem quality jade crystals. Gem quality jade is very expensive, a jade bangle made from jade gem quality with a marvelous translucent shining goes for about $ 2000,- in Yangon Myanmar's Bogyoke Market. Bogyoke Market has the most jade shops anywhere in the world and a incredible variety in all kind of jade and imperial Jade quality are on display. Imperial Jade shop, jade necklace, jade gifts and jade pendants Varying from simple jade bangles for $ 10,- to translucent jade bangles for $ 1000,- and upwards. Be aware that Chinese developed a process to make cheap jade bangles and other jade items look like very expensive imperial jade by injecting some kind of chemicals with very high pressure into the jade stone. That means when you are shopping for any jade jewelry for more than $ 1000,- take a expert with you, just hire one and let him check because he know what you don't know about imperial jade. Made from imperial jade crystal are jade dragon, jade gems, jade gemstones and jade jewelry. Jade necklaces, jade pendant and jade rings are the most used jade jewelry. Jade market   Jade and Pearls Jewelry Shop Jade stones for imperial jade or jadeite wholesale are coming today only from Myanmar or Burma its called Myanmar jade. This is always natural jade which we know as green imperial jade. Variants of real jade colors are purple jade, white jade, lavender jade and various brown and blue shades. Bogyoke market video Bogyoke Market Handy Boy Jade shop, jade bracelets, jade earrings, jade necklace, jade gifts Natural Jade jewelry

The occasion, the Myanmar Gems, Imperial Jade and Pearl Fair

held at the Myanmar Gems Emporium Hall in Yangon twice per year. Six-hundred and twenty-six gem merchants representing 227 companies from fifteen countries attended the fair to inspect and buy at auction the astonishing variety of gems and pearls on display. The hall held treasures to dazzle even non-experts. Imperial Jade in pebble form or rock took over the ground floor corridors of the hall and the sprawling outdoor compound. Even the pillars of the hall, built in 1993, were built entirely of small Imperial Jade tiles!

Since the days of the ancient Burmese kings, foreign traders and merchants have been drawn by the country’s superb gems. The story goes that the first French gem merchants were astounded by the quality of some Nga Mauk rubies and declared them to be priceless.

The awe of the French gem traders is best captured in a magnificent mural that decorates the lobby of the Gems Emporium Hall. The mural features miners at work, treasure chests and salvers filled with precious stones and kings and noblemen displaying rubies to foreign visitors who are wide-eyed with a amazement.

Standing tall in the middle of it all is a bejeweled queen representing Mother Myanmar sprinkling eugenia sprigs as a sign of welcome.
The esteem for Myanmar gems continues to this day. For this reason, hundreds of visitors arrive each year in Yangon to participate in the gems fair first held in 1964 and which is now held twice annually, in March and October. Many reference books on gems acknowledge Myanmar to be the foremost producer of first-class rubies, sapphires and Imperial Jade. Indeed, the world’s commercial quantities of Imperial Jade are now believed to come only from Myanmar.

There are two kinds of Imperial Jade. Imperial Jadeite, which is considered superior because of its clarity and nephrite, is mined in Myanmar at Mogaung and other sites in Kachin. It is said that Imperial Jade was so abundant that chunks of the precious stone were used by Shan noble families as door-stoppers! They smeared the Imperial Jade blocks with water, “…to bring out the color and its intensity”, explained a jeweler from Hong Kong, examined stones with a flashlight to check for cracks and a magnifying glasses to study gems for inclusions. The vast majority of visitors came from Asia including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Imperial Jade was the main attraction. Said a buyer from Taiwan: “I am only here to look at Imperial Jade, because my customers back home prefer it to other gemstones”. Explaining the Chinese partiality for Imperial Jade, he added: “The Chinese believe that Imperial Jade is a liv-ing stone; its colour deepens as it is worn over time.”

Jade deep green small pieces of raw pure

The fondness for Imperial Jade stems from an old Chinese legend which tells how an ancient king was once cured of an illness by wearing a Imperial Jade stone. So many Chinese like to wear Imperial Jade because of its alleged protective and curative powers.

The fair is divided into two sections. The ground floor features displays of uncut as well as cut and polished gems and Imperial Jade as well as jewelry pieces —sapphire, ruby or Imperial Jade rings, earrings, bracelets and pearls set in gold, with or without diamonds. There are inexpensive pieces for sale such as Imperial Jadeite rings for US$1 baroque Imperial Jade pieces for US$3, Imperial Jade bracelets for US$30 and for the indulgent, Imperial Jade chopsticks at US$80.00 a pair. There are more expensive pieces of course, US$3,500 for an exquisite Imperial Jade tea set consisting of a pot, six cups and a tray, splendid Imperial Jade carvings from simple animal figurines to more complex Buddha images. There are ruby cabochon rings set in 18-carat gold going from US$100, sapphire rings from US$150 and pearl rings from US$90. For those with larger budgets there are ruby-encrusted gold pens for US$2,000.

All gems and jewelry on the ground floor can be bought over the counter from the vendors who represent joint ventures between private companies and the government. Items offered are of good quality and feature surprisingly contemporary designs. Authenticity is assured and a certificate for customs clearance is issued with every purchase. All told, 129 lots of gems, 38 lots of Imperial Jade, 5,705 jeweler pieces and 5,261 pieces of Imperial Jade carving valued at US$4.16 million were available for sale over the counter. The second floor features gems, pearls, Imperial Jade stones and carvings exhibited by government-owned mines and sold only by auction. In a competitive bidding process sealed bids are received for each lot and the highest bid over the reserve price wins the particular order. Some gems were so coveted that the bid was several times the reserve price! A single imperial Imperial Jade semi-cut piece for instance, weighing 66.1 grams with a reserve price of US$3,500 sold for US$10,001.

Jade deep green raw pure fist size

Auctioning began at a slow pace in the morning of the first day but in the afternoon, the pace quickened. There was still much examining of the gems every time a lot was called for bids. A mind-boggling 339 lots of gems, 621 lots of Imperial Jade and 120 lots of pearl valued at a total of US$18.6 million were put up for auction. Not all lots received bids. The percentage of gems jewelry and imperial jade successfully auctioned off varies from fair to fair. Emporiums turnovers are up to US$ 15 million, twice per year. It is estimated that some 60 to 80 per cent of all lots on display are sold at each Emporium. Said a Imperial Jade merchant from Hong Kong who was on his 15th visit to the Myanmar Gems Emporium, “Myanmar is the only place where you can find Imperial Jade in such quantities. Some years, I have found really good quality imperial jade in form of imperial jade dragon, imperial jade bracelet, imperial jade pendant, imperial jade necklace, Jade earring, imperial jade jewelry and raw pure jade at reasonable prices; other times, I couldn’t find anything I liked or the prices were too high. But I have to come here every year anyway to see what’s in the jade market.” Despite some reservations about price, most of the visitors to the Myanmar Gems Emporium agree on one thing, the gems are of superior quality to those found elsewhere and many gem dealers and jewelers are willing to pay the price.

Raw natural imperial jade

7000 years of Chinese Imperial Jade from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung

Imperial Jade has been prized by the Chinese for over seven thousand years as the most precious of all materials, and has been believed to possess near-magical properties. Its enduring and ageless surface texture came to be associated with immortality, while its abstract qualities represented a pinnacle of simplicity and elegance of design. No other culture has valued Imperial Jade or any other material for such a length of time, nor indeed accorded any material such literary and philosophical attention. From the middle of the Zhou period (1050-256 BC) onwards, the physical qualities of the stone have served as a metaphor to describe the human soul. According to an ancient text, the Zhou Li, dating to about the fourth century BC:

Anciently superior men found the likeness of all excellent qualities in Imperial Jade. Soft, smooth and glossy, it appeared to them like benevolence; fine, compact and strong, like intelligence ... its flaws not concealing its beauty, nor its beauty its flaws, like loyalty; with internal radiance issuing from it on every side, like good faith. (1)

In a later text (c. 280-233 BC), the Han Feizi, there is a story about a man called Bian He, who presented an uncut Imperial Jade to two succeeding kings, neither of whom believed that the rough boulder really contained Imperial Jade and had his feet amputated as a punishment. He cried out in despair, explaining: 'I am lamenting not the loss of my feet but for the calling a precious gem an ordinary stone and for the dubbing of an honest man a liar.' The treasure inside was then extracted and polished; the moral of the story is still quoted today to illustrate how hard it can be for some people to recognize excellence when it is hidden under a rough exterior. (2)

From June to September 1995, the British Museum displayed an exhibition of Imperial Jades from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung. This proved a very popular exhibition, and the British Museum is very fortunate that it is now able to devote a whole gallery to Chinese Imperial Jade, which opened in November 2002. We are delighted that Sir Joseph Hotung, who has been collecting Imperial Jades for over thirty years now, has agreed to allow his Imperial Jades to be exhibited on a long term loan basis. The Imperial Jades are on in the gallery, room 33B, leading directly off the Hotung Gallery of Oriental Antiquities.

This gallery is called the Selwyn and Ellie Alleyne Gallery, after the couple who generously funded the refurbishment of the space. This means that there is now a gallery in the British Museum dedicated to Chinese Imperial Jade, a material which has been associated with the Chinese since Neolithic times and prized by them above the gold and gems we rank so highly in the West. Sir Joseph's Imperial Jades are augmented by a few private loans and British Museum Imperial Jades, together with some comparative material in other media. Imperial Jade is still highly prized by the Chinese and we are also showing some twentieth-century pieces to illustrate the fact that good contemporary Imperial Jade carving still exists in China today. Imperial Jade is a hard and exceptionally tough material, and one line of research is concerned with the manner in which it has been worked and the development of Imperial Jade carving techniques since Neolithic times. For this reason, at the same time as planning this exhibition, we have also instituted a project in collaboration with our scientific research department. They are conducting an investigation, using optical and scanning electron microscopy, to ascertain different techniques of carving by examining the minute tool marks left on the Imperial Jades. We hope this will allow a relative chronology for the development of Imperial Jade carving to be established, perhaps establishing a link between 'style' of carving and 'technology'. The results should also help to establish the date at which objects were carved, a frequent problem in the study of Imperial Jades. My colleague, Margaret Sax, who is in charge of this project will describe this work later in the article.

Jade elephants from Myanmar Burma

Jade bangles from Myanmar Burma

When we exhibited Sir Joseph's Imperial Jades in 1995, I wrote about some of the early pieces in APOLLO, (3) so this time I will focus on some later Imperial Jades. Sir Joseph's collection of Imperial Jade, with the exception of a few newly acquired pieces, is illustrated and discussed in great depth by Jessica Rawson in the catalogue printed originally in 1995, which has been reprinted especially for this new exhibition. (4) The exhibition is laid out in a chronological fashion along one wall of the gallery, with various highlights picked out in three cases on the other side: they include a case on the Neolithic culture of the Liangzhu, another devoted to animals and humans from the Han dynasty to the present and a third on the pictorial quality of later Imperial Jades. (5)

The section on later Imperial Jades in the chronological part of the display features a Imperial Jade belt set for a man and a pendant set, probably for a lady. In the post-Han period, Imperial Jade was widely used for personal ornaments, such as pendants, belt, dress and hair ornaments, jewellery and small objects to hang about the person. In the earlier period of Chinese history, Imperial Jade played a pivotal role in ceremony and ritual. However, in this later period its significance in such contexts gradually diminished, and it was more important for worldly display than display to spirits in the tombs.
Belt sets were introduced to China from the Steppe area. Gold, silver and gilt bronze examples, comprising a variety of plaques and a buckle section first appeared in the third and fourth centuries AD. These designs were simplified in Imperial Jade: round or shaped plaques were cut square; openwork or pierced and relief designs were cut as incised lines or simple relief on a flat surface. The constraints imposed by Imperial Jade as a material did not, however, inhibit its use.
 

By the Tang dynasty, Imperial Jade was established at the summit of a hierarchy of materials for belts. Such emphasis on Imperial Jade was probably in part a consequence of the Tang imperial family's interest in Daoism. Within religious Daoism, Imperial Jade was used to describe many aspects of the immortal worlds. Once established as the primary material for belts, Imperial Jade remained at the top of the hierarchy in subsequent dynasties. During the time of our exhibition, 'Gilded Dragons, 1999: Buried treasures from Ancient China', I wrote in APOLLO, about Imperial Jade belts and various other ornaments which we borrowed from China at that time. (6) The Tang dynasty complete belt set illustrated here belonging to Sir Joseph Hotung, is undecorated; it would have been worn as an indication of rank as stipulated by the regulations of the time, and--since Chinese robes did not have pockets--would have had various implements, including knives, suspended from it.

Jade carving Chinese figures Myanmar Burma

However, jade was also very popular during the Tang dynasty, a period of great exoticism in China, when the Silk Route was at its height and there were many foreigners at the imperial court, to decorate such Imperial Jade plaques with scenes of foreign musicians playing their instruments.

Other Imperial Jades of the Tang or Liao periods, ninth-tenth century, could also be linked with Daoism. A pair of elegant earrings in a brilliant pure white Imperial Jade are of the luminous quality feted by contemporary poets, but such flying angel figures could be regarded as either Buddhist angels (apsarases) or perhaps Imperial Jade maidens, inhabitants of the immortal heavens of the Daoist cosmos, where such beings were attendants on the Queen Mother of the West. The stylistic character of the earrings reflects both the influence of Central Asian forms introduced to China from kingdoms further west and their origins in a metal prototype, evident from the fine open work and delicate, incised lines.

For aristocratic and rich ladies, hair ornaments, bracelets and earrings were important accoutrements, and I illustrated several in the APOLLO article of 1999. (7) In the case, together with the man's belt set, we are showing a pendant set, with illustrations clarifying how ladies wore them. We know, however, from various texts of the Tang period that such pendants were worn by both sexes, and that they were symbols of rank. They were prevalent from the Six Dynasties period (265-589 AD) onwards. The color of the Imperial Jade indicated to which rank its wearer belonged. Thus, the first rank officials wore mountain-dark Imperial Jade, while others above the fifth rank wore water-green pendants. These ornaments were obviously used both in life and then taken to the grave to show the bureaucrats of the underworld their wearers' status in the hereafter. The Chinese have traditionally always been very concerned with hierarchy and status. Even in the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), they were taking mortgage deeds with them to the afterlife to prove to the officials there that they owned the entitlement to the land on which they were buried. These pendants sets of Imperial Jade are illustrated on figures such as those found in the Tang dynasty tomb of Princess Yongtai and other tomb murals.

Jade carving warrior on horse Myanmar Burma

Apparently part of the purpose of these sets was also to weigh down the hem of the skirt to prevent it from fluttering in the wind when walking. (8)

During the Han dynasty, Chinese ideas about immortality had undergone fundamental changes. Notions about the underworld and paradises to which the dead might go were modified, such new beliefs being known as religious Daoism, an indigenous Chinese religion. The dead were no longer thought to live primarily in their tombs, but rather to go to an afterlife in paradise, so models, rather than the real things, were now placed with them and precious objects were no longer buried. Imperial Jade became closely linked with the Daoist search for immortality and the Daoist paradises were described as being luminous like translucent Imperial Jade, and filled with Imperial Jade immortals and animals. The belief that eating powdered Imperial Jade would help mortals to reach these miraculous realms, as well as other similar beliefs, became prevalent. (9)

Prior to this period Imperial Jade vessels were probably a rarity, because of the wastage involved in their manufacture and the difficulties involved in carving thin, curved walls. However, during the Tang dynasty some Imperial Jade vessels were made which copied foreign gold or silver shapes, partly in an attempt to assist those who sought immortality through drinking or eating from such precious Imperial Jade vessels. They were obviously very luxurious, and ownership implied great wealth and status. Many such metal vessels had been used in Buddhist ceremonies, having been introduced to China by the non-Chinese rulers of northern China during the Six Dynasties period. They were gradually adopted into secular usage by the aristocrats and elite of the Tang period. Cups in Imperial Jade were thus linked with a search for immortality assisted by Imperial Jade. The Hejiacun hoard featured in our exhibition 'Gilded Dragons' included several vessels in gold and silver, (10) whose shape is similar to that of this lobed dish in Imperial Jade (Fig. 3). The prototypes perhaps originated further west in Iran, in gold and silver and occasionally in glass. (11) Probably by the time this Imperial Jade cup was crafted its foreign origins were already obscure. As with the belts and the jeweler, the choice of Imperial Jade was both a mark of high standing within the Chinese scale of values and probably also an indication of a concern with immortality, as drinking from a Imperial Jade cup would transfer some of the precious, immortal essence of Imperial Jade to the drinker.

Sumptuary laws in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries required that only certain people were allowed to use Imperial Jade vessels, but many disregarded these rules and most of the surviving Imperial Jade vessels and numerous Imperial Jade ornaments date to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) periods.

There are four main categories of later Imperial Jade vessels: vessels copying silver or gold forms, as mentioned above; vessels based on ancient bronzes and Imperial Jades; undecorated cups and bowls in porcelain shapes; and cups with flower like bodies or handles.

In the new Alleyne gallery, we are showing examples of all the above types of vessels. From the Song period (970-1279) the emperors, partly in order to bolster their legitimacy, printed catalogues of the imperial art collections. The Chinese had of course invented printing, and used moveable type printing from the Song period onwards. From the Ming period, the widespread use of such books with woodblock illustrations affected the manufacture of all types of utensils. These books circulated images of famous paintings, calligraphy and antiquities, as well as designs for such utensils as ink cakes and ink stones. As a result, forms and decorations developed in one material were readily copied in another. Imperial Jade carvers, no less than craftsmen working in other media, were inspired in this way.

During the mid- to later Qing period, the Chinese controlled the area along the trade routes to Khotan and Yarkand from which most of their Imperial Jade now came. Many larger vessels were made in this later period in imitation of archaic shapes, originally associated with bronze. The collection of antique bronzes belonging to the Qianlong Emperor (1736-95) was published in the Xi Qing gujian. (12) A Qing dynasty covered vessel, in the shape of an archaic bronze fang yi, dates to the eighteenth century. It reproduces in Imperial Jade a rectangular section (fang yi) vessel of the Shang or early Western Zhou. (13)

This large, circular, spinach-green brush pot, is characteristic of the much greater size of Imperial Jades of the later period, when it had become more easily obtainable. The most famous of these larger Imperial Jades is the boulder in Beijing, in the Forbidden City, which portrays the mythical Emperor Yu controlling the floods. It was found in 1778 and was a phenomenal piece weighing 5,350 kilograms and measuring 224 centimeters in height. It was transported to Beijing in a specially reinforced wagon; the journey is estimated to have taken three years. A Imperial Jade craftsman was chosen to create a three-dimensional model of Yu controlling the floods, from a painting in an ancient Song dynasty catalogue. (14)

This brush pot typifies the pictorial quality characteristic of so many later vessels, which were often worked as if the surface of the Imperial Jade were a sheet of paper or a scroll to be unrolled. The brush pot is decorated with scenes of rice cultivation and the stacking of sheaves--scenes of farm life. These two scenes can be directly compared with images from the set of pictures conventionally used to illustrate rice growing and sericulture, known as the Gengzhi tu, as shown in the print reproduced here from an imperial album the British Museum has in its possession (Fig. 7). The figures are not placed in exactly the same positions in the print and parts of the scenes have been omitted from the brush pot, as some of the painted elements would have been difficult to reproduce in a Imperial Jade carving, even one made by as consummate a master as the one responsible for this piece, but it is a fairly faithful translation of its prototype, as is also the case with the carving on the other side). (15)

Jade carving ancient figure  Myanmar Burma

Both sides of this rectangular jade screen are carved with mountainous landscape scenes, a setting for the Eight Immortals, legendary figures within Daoist folklore, and the God of Longevity, Shou Xing. The Eight Immortals are said to have lived at different periods and to have attained immortality through an understanding of Nature's secrets. They are divided into opposed pairs, each of which represents the two sides of a different condition of mankind: poverty, wealth, age, youth, male, female and so on. They all have identifiable attributes. (16) Again, the whole composition is treated like a painting or printed image and was probably based on a particular woodblock illustration, such as that from the Fang shi mopu. (17) The old man holding a fan seated on the top of the tower and platform is Zhongli Quan, the leader of the Eight. Next to him is He Xiangu, holding a peach; and the third figure is Li Tieguai, holding a gourd, from which there rises a long streamer of mist; he is always depicted as an emaciated beggar, leaning on a stick. On the ground to the left of the tower stand four further figures. Reading from left to right, they are: Cao Guojiu, holding a pair of castanets; Zhang Guolao, holding the yu gu, a musical instrument in the shape of a bamboo tube with two rods to beat it; Lu Dongbin, carrying a fly-brush and his emblem, a sword; and Han Xiangzi, the patron of musicians, playing a flute. The eighth immortal is Lan Caihe, generally regarded as a woman, but sometimes shown as a boy, and seen here on the extreme right, carrying the customary emblem of a basket of flowers. Above the whole scene, mounted on a flying crane, is Shou Xing, the God of Longevity. As mentioned earlier, establishing the date at which Imperial Jade objects were carved has so far proved problematical; by contrast, in the case of ceramics thermo luminescence tests have been used for many years. What follows is an account by my colleague in the Scientific Research Department of the British Museum, Margaret Sax, of the work she is doing to try and remedy this situation with regard to Imperial Jade.

The scientific study of Imperial Jade follows the successful outcome of an investigation into the methods used to engrave the curved sides of hard stone, quartz cylinder seals in Mesopotamia. These were produced in Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas of the Near East from about 3000-400 BC. Having surveyed the seal intaglios by binocular microscopy, we developed a methodology to study the fine detail of the tool marks using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Detailed impressions of the marks were made with silicone dental resin, and then the moulds were gold-coated so that they were electrically conducting and could be examined and recorded in the high vacuum chamber of the SEM. The characteristics of the tool marks preserved on the seals were compared with tool marks produced experimentally, using a range of techniques, tools and abrasive materials. The method of moulding is particularly advantageous for the study of Imperial Jade because it allows the deeply carved parts of an object that are difficult to view directly to be examined. These less accessible features would have also been difficult to smooth and polish and often preserve the original tool marks.

In the initial stage of the study, we examined several Imperial Jades dated stylistically to one of three broad periods in Chinese history, the Neolithic Hongshan and Liangzhu cultures (fourth-third millennia BC), (18) the Western and Eastern Zhou dynasties (eleventh-third centuries BC) and the Ming and Qing dynasties from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. This has enabled the use of several different techniques of carving to be identified. All are abrasive processes. Howard Hansford described the abrasive powders that were being used by Beijing Imperial Jade carvers in 1939. (19) These included quartz, garnet and emery which were mixed with water to make a slurry and applied with rotary tools, such as wheels and drills, as well as non-rotary files. Hansford also referred to the use of hand-held pointed tools for engraving inscriptions.

To illustrate the information that can be obtained from objects like those described in this article, we focus on the tool marks found on a flower and cicada ornament, dated to the Ming or the Qing dynasty, which is a mere nine centimeters high. The overall dimensions of the ornament suggest it was worked from a small slab of Imperial Jade, about nine millimeters thick. Tool marks relating to the shaping of the undulating surfaces forming the flower and the cicada survive on the highly decorated front and rear faces. The SEM micrograph --the scale bars in this and represent 2 mm--is of a mould taken from the surface of the cicada's wing. Our engraving experiments indicated that the fine parallel grooves seen here are typical of those carved using an abrasive slurry with a disc-shaped rotary wheel. An iron or steel wheel was probably mounted on a lathe and rotated by a foot treadle, similar perhaps to the one depicted in a seventeenth century woodblock print, included by Sun and Sun in their translation of T'ien Kung K'ai-Wu. (20) Another SEM micrograph shows the incised decoration on the cicada's wing. The curvature of these features, protruding upwards on this mould, indicates they were carved using a very small wheel.

The tool marks molded from a hole pierced through the cicada's wing suggest how pierced features on this and other objects, such as the Tang or Liao earrings, may have been worked. The SEM micrograph  shows two distinct features which extend through the thickness of the ornament. On the left, the feature has circumferential grooves, demonstrating that it was worked with a solid drill, about one millimeter in diameter. In contrast, the even narrower features on the right are characterized by faint longitudinal grooves, consistent with the use of a saw to enlarge the drilled hole, in the manner of a fretsaw.

Our examination of this ornament and several other Imperial Jades has provided evidence for the use of rotary tools during the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, different characteristics are present on some of the earlier Imperial Jades, for example, the plaque of a face veil , dated to the Eastern Zhou dynasty, 770-475 BC. Molded details of the stylized dragon incised on the front can be seen in the SEM micrograph, in which the scale bar represents 5 mm. The characteristics of the tool marks here show that several different hand-held tools were used in the carving. The generally uneven nature of the marks on the plaque contrast with the even working of the flower and cicada ornament.

The present scientific study is beginning to provide evidence for the techniques by which this extraordinarily tough material was painstakingly shaped, carved and polished using abrasive processes to reveal the hidden qualities that were recognized in the raw stone by Bian He.

Despite the fact that the process of producing Imperial Jades was extremely time-consuming and labor intensive, the many thousands of Imperial Jade ritual and ornamental objects that have been made by the Chinese amply testify to the great symbolic and material worth this material held and indeed still holds for them.

(1) J. Legge, edited with introduction and study guide by Ch'u Chai and Winberg Chai, Li Chi, Book of Rites: An Encyclopaedia of Ancient Ceremonial Usages, Religous Creeds and Social Institutions, 2 vols., New York, 1967, vol. II, p. 464.

(2) See Wenbo, 1993, no. 2, pp. 47-52, and R. Gump, Imperial Jade: Stone of Heaven, New York, 1962, pp. 172-75.

(3) Carol Michaelson, 'Some early Chinese Imperial Jades in the Hotung Collection and the British Museum', APOLLO vol. CXLI, no. 396 (February 1995), pp. 11-15.

(4) J. Rawson, Chinese Imperial Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995. I am greatly indebted to Professor Dame Jessica Rawson for the opportunity of working on the exhibition and catalogue in 1995, and for her inspiration and help in my work at the British Museum before and since that time.

(5) See Michaelson, op. cit.

(6) Eadem, 'Gilded dragons: Buried treasures from China's Golden Ages', APOLLO, vol. CL, no. 453 (November 1999), pp. 43-46.

(7) Ibid., pp. 43-46

(8) See Liu Yunhui, BeiZhou Sui, Tang Jingyi Yuqi, Chongqing, 2000, p. 32; see also Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, 5000 Years of Chinese Costumes, San Francisco, 1987, p. 121.

(9) See Rawson, op, cit., pp. 79-85.

(10) Carol Michaelson, Gilded dragons: Buried treasure from China's Golden Ages, exh. cat., British Museum, pp. 104-29, no. 70.

(11) Jiro Harada, Catalogue of Treasures in the Imperial repository, Tokyo, 1932, plate L111.

(12) See J. Rawson (ed.), The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, p. 64.

(13) See Rawson, op. cit., p. 399; in the new exhibition, an archaic bronze prototype of the same shape is shown alongside the Qing dynasty vessel.

(14) See F. Ward, 'Imperial Jade: Stories of heaven', National Geographic Magazine, vol. CLXXII, no. 3 (September 1987), p. 294; and Craig Clunas in Zhang Hong Xing, The Qianlong Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City, exh. cat., National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, preface, p. 14.

(15) Rawson, op cit., pp. 406-409.

(16) Wolfram Eberhard, A dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought, London and New York, 1986, pp. 91-93.

(17) Rawson, op. cit., p. 404.

(18) See n. 3 above.

(19) Sidney Howard Hansford, Chinese Imperial Jade Carving, London and Bradford, 1950.

(20) E-Tu Zen Sun and Shiou-Chuan Sun, Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century, University Park, PA, and London, 1996, p 306, fig. 18-7.

Author Carol Michaelson and Margaret Sax.  Carol Michaelson is an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Asia at the British Museum. Her research interests include Chinese Imperial Jades and early Chinese material. She is currently co-ordinating the digitisation of the Department's Dunhuang and related material collected by Sir Marc Aurel Stein,  a project funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.