In the March of 1928, when my grandpa was 100 days (yes, days) old, the family held a big celebration party. The whole village came. Hundreds of silver symbolic locks covered a large table. Those were popular gifts at that time.

Chinese people treasure silver; because China had been short of silver supply in history. While silver coins were used on a daily basis in ancient Europe and western Asia, Chinese people predominantly used bronze, brass and even iron coins. Silver was only circulated among rich people and nobles before Ming dynasty. Possessing silverware had been a dream of ordinary farmers for thousands of years. Starting from about 16th century in Ming dynasty, as more silver came from Japan, Europe and South America through trade, silver finally reached the hands of Chinese farmers. Women in kitchen started to wear silver hairpins. They felt richer, although they were still working in the kitchen.

Silver symbolic locks became popular in a much later period, in my view not until early 1800s, when adults had quite some silver to spend. Symbolic locks were big. They were hung on the neck of children, who not care about those dangles as well as their moms did. I did not find any reliable recording of silver locks before 19th century. Some records were likely to be necklaces with fancy shaped pendants instead of symbolic locks.

Figure 1
Obverse: Alta table with ume, water lily, vase, book, fan, etc.
Reverse: Plain
Zhejiang or Jiangsu province, Qing Dynasty 8th year of Xian Feng Emperor 1858 Qing

The earliest item I have with reliable year inscription is one made in 1858 (8th year of Xian Feng Emperor)(Figure 1). This lock is actually a copper one with a layer of silver, which is not an uncommon case. From the enlarged image, we can see that the silver layer worn out after the inscription was punched in.

Also, the theme displayed on the lock appeared very often before mid-Qing dynasty decoration arts and became less popular afterward. Therefore the date of this lock is reliable. Can it be used to judge the time of other symbolic locks? It’s hard; because the symbolic lock culture quickly spread into every city of this huge land, and diverted into hundreds of local styles in less than fifty years.

By looking at the style of a lock, experienced collectors and dealers can tell which province, even which city, it was produced (Figure 2 and Figure 3 are two examples). As for era, the best one could tell is either late Qing or Republic period, which spans less than 200 years.

The life of silver symbolic lock culture is short. It was officially terminated by the Cultural Revolution, starting from 1966. But it was dying anyway, as the silver period had passed.

Figure 2
Obverse: Squirrel and grapes
Reverse: Chang Ming Bai Sui 
Hebei Province, probably Qing Dynasty

Figure 3
Obverse: Guan Yu (God of Righteousness and
Reverse: Three of the eight immortals
Fujian Province, probably Qing Dynasty

Yi is a PhD student in Virginia Tech. He loves collecting and studying old things, particularly ancient world coins and old Chinese silver symbolic locks. He is one of the earliest people to introduce ancient Greek and Roman coins to Chinese collectors through internet. Here is a link to his online coin store.

RETURN …TO MAIN SITE

[ A partial view of the celadon jade mountain carved by the court order of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty c. 1660]

Only if everything mentioned BELOW is in order, we will comfortably take the piece into our antique jade collection. If the test fails in a single aspect or if the collector has doubt in any aspect, it is advisable not to take the piece because a single mistake might cause substantial loss of money.

1. Material – the material of the piece should only be nephrite unless it is a Qing piece when Jadeite started to play an important role as jade.
2. Design – the design and form of the piece should be characteristic of the stated era. The form of a Song (A.D.960 – 1279) dragon carved on a jade piece is definitely different from that of a Qing (A.D.1644 – 1911) piece. While that carved on a Ming (A.D.1368 – 1644) piece might retain some characteristics of a Yuan (A.D.1279 – 1328) dragon and also have some characteristics of a Qing piece indicating the “evolution” of the design and the change in trend of the dragon form.
3. Craftsmanship – the craftsmanship is “old”. The tool marks left on the surface of the pieces is consistent with those made by the manual carving treadle lathe and piercing by drilling or wire cutting. The essence of carving with these tools is by rubbing or grinding of metal disk, solid or hollow drill bits and metal wire with harder sand-like materials against the jade. The appearance of the bottom side of the carved lines should be grain-like as these lines are narrow and cannot be polished. The reticulated areas or holes that are rougher than the well- polished surface areas should show oxidation more seriously and obviously, and the patina and polishing is soft.
4. Burial marks – the burial marks should be natural and not superficial if the jade piece had at least been once buried in a tomb. They had been subjected to corrosion and weathering for hundred of years when they were in the tomb in contact with a moist, alkaline or some unknown diverse environment. Some chemical or physical changes might have taken place within the jade.

So we now come to the discussion of nephrite jade.

As said last time, nephrite is basically some sort of mineral rock. Chemically it is a kind of crystallized fibrous calcium and magnesium silicate compound with interlocking structure believed to be formed under low pressure (below 2500 Bar) and low temperature (around 300 to 340 degree Celsius) during the mountain building period of the Earth. It is known as Tremolite in mineralogy with a chemical formula of Ca₂Mg₅ [ Si₄O₁₁]₂[OH]₂.

[ A late Yuan Dynasty c. 1271–1368, spinach jade belt hook ]

Pure Tremolite is white in colour and extremely rare. In nature in Xinjiang province of China where nephrite jade has been mined for thousands of years and was before 1980’s the only place that nephrite was mined, it is often associated with various impurities like Actinolite and Ferro-actinolite adding on top of the white colour a greenish tint, or with graphite making it grey or black, and with chromium oxide giving it the green colour of the spinach nephrite jade.

The so-called mutton-fat jade that is pure white has a Tremolite content of over 99%. Its existence is rare and up till now I have never seen a single piece. Normal white jade has over 95% Tremolite content. The infamous celadon jade mountain [first photo above] carved during the Qianlong period under the court order of Emperor Qianlong and now exhibiting in the Palace Museum of Beijing has a Tremolite content of 89% and 6% Actinolite. Grey or black nephrite has a graphite content of 5% to 20%. Spinach nephrite jade has Tremolite content between 75% to 90% and other impurities. Unlike spinach jade mined in Canada in recent years, those mined in Xinjiang have finer crystals and always have black impurities.

I shall talk about the physical properties of nephrite and touch on other nephrite jades mined in Qinghai province and in the Lake Baikal region of Russia since 1980’s later.

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Hi! It’s CC again.

Today, I will begin with a question for you. What is “Jade”?

The word comes from an ancient Spanish word “Piedra de Ijada”, which appeared first in 16^th century medical papers in Spain. “Ijada” originally referred to jadeite jade mined in Mexico, which were ground into powder and mixed with water as medication for cure of groin pain by the Mexican locals. The word “Ijada” later became “Jade” and is commonly used in the western world.

[ A nephrite jade finial from the Yuan Dynasty  c.  A.D. 1271 – A.D. 1368 ]

Then, what is “Jade” from a Chinese point of view?

We do have a very broad concept of jade in the Chinese culture and the traditional jade carving industry. It embraces a vast quantity of materials. We call jade “Yu” in Chinese.

Our ancient scholar Mr. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D.25 – A.D.220) defined jade as beautiful rocks, metaphorically having the five virtues of man, namely: benevolence, loyalty, wisdom, courage and honesty. It follows that in the ensuing period of time, Chinese and the traditional jade carving industry define jade in a very broad sense.

Jades are beautiful rocks. They must colourful, hard and durable, lustrous (after polishing), having a uniform and compact structure, and when they are being tapped lightly give off a clear and crispy sound. These rocks, whether in the raw form or after they are made into ornamental pieces, are adorable and their beauty generally well appreciated. They should not be in abundance and thus they are pricey in value, too

Specifically the traditional Chinese jades embrace:

1. Colourful and extra hard gems including diamond, sapphire and ruby.
2. Some non-mineral/non-rock materials including coral, pearl and amber.
3. Serpentine stone, malachite, agate, rock crystal, lapis, turquoise, rose quartz and amethyst.
4. Jadeite.
5. Nephrite.

The list is not exhaustive but demonstrates the wide variety of materials classified as jade in the broad sense in the Chinese jade culture. It is also interesting to note that soapstone, no matter how precious the type is, had never been regarded as jade. This is probably due to the fact that they are carved by very sharp knives by skilled carvers but not by the traditional jade carving treadle lathe operated by the jade craftsmen. And thus they have never been regarded as jade by the jade industry.

The modern concept of Chinese jade is much stricter. It only embraces 2 kinds of rock materials, one is jadeite and the other is nephrite. Nowadays jade collectors only pursue these two types of jade.

[ A landing dragon of a jade plaque from the late Yuan Dynasty  c.  A.D. 1271 - A.D. 1368 ]

Nephrite, mined from Xinjiang province, has a very long history of being carved into jade pieces. The unearthing of the Fu Hao Tomb which dated around the 13^th Century B.C. when rudimentary Chinese characters first appeared, uncovered 755 pieces of jade articles and many of them were made of nephrite. It has been pursued and adored by the royal families, noble classes, scholars and wealthy people throughout the history of China. It was seen as a sign of power, wealth, culture and myth for a very long period of time and was regarded as the king of all jades until jadeite rises into power to challenge its position in late Qing Dynasty (A.D.1644 – A.D.1911).

Jadeite had been imported from Burma since late Ming Dynasty (A.D.1368 – A.D.1644). It is generally believed that initially white jadeite was used to imitate nephrite because of the high value of white nephrite. Unlike nowadays, the precious green or lavender coloured parts were discarded during carving.

Jadeite was never popular amongst the royal families, scholars and the common rich people in the early Qing or mid-Qing Dynasty. It wasn’t until Empress Cixi came into reign around 1861 that jadeite became fashionable. Jadeite was her favourite jade. The court officials and the common people therefore followed suit. Jadeite is still Chinese women’s favourite jewelry.

I shall talk about the properties of nephrite in my next post. See you all then.

Hello,

I am CC, from Hong Kong.

I have been asked to be a guest blogger on “Chinese Jade” for Susan’s PrivateCollection PhotoBlog.  It is indeed my pleasure and honour to do so.

What I am going to write about will be some basics on Chinese jade collecting, especially antique nephrite jades carved in the last millennium but before the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.  I will try to share what I know with a view to clearing some of the myths and misunderstanding of Chinese jade by westerners.

A beautiful piece from CC’s collection

A bit about myself… I was born in Hong Kong, the present HK Special Administrative Region, not many years after the World War II.  Hong Kong was, before July 1997, under the colonial rule of the UK and no wonder it was called a “Culture Desert”.  People were taught to work hard, speak less and most of us are money-oriented.  We lacked the spiritual aspect of life that we should have developed as in other developed regions of the world.  But I always think that I am a bit different from others, I am not so after money. I can still adore beautiful things, should it be the nature or a piece of sculpture, poem, music, and admire people who write, play or carve them.

In early 1990’s, a colleague of my office showed me a small piece of green/white stone carved with a monkey and a bamboo stem saying that it was an antique jadeite.  He explained to me that the meaning of carving a monkey in Chinese was “Be an official to the emperor” and the bamboo that has so many nodes was “Getting promotion many times”.

I was attracted to buy this odd and ugly piece at about US$500 which is my first piece of jade.  Later when I learned a bit more about jadeite from the local market, I knew I was fooled.  It was not an old piece.  Its worth was less than a hundred dollars.  But I would not talk to the seller and asked for refund, as I knew at the same time, unlike gold, jade does not have a set price pertaining to it.  Its price will be dependent on the market, in other words, on the affordability of the buyer or competitive buyers.

I am a person who tries to learn from mistakes…I am persistent pursuing what I do not know if I have interest.  So throughout the 1990’s, I bought on and off new jadeite carvings that cost me a lot of money from the local market.  Not many pieces, as jadeite always commands high prices and I had a family to raise and a house mortgage to repay.

I started reading books on jadeite. I continued collecting, not because of Chinese superstition that jade will bring you good fortune or it will keep you away from the evil things but because of the beauty of the stone and the delicacy of the craftsmanship.

At the turn of the century, I discovered eBay.  I bought my first antique white nephrite jade belt hook depicting a dragon and phoenix from an auction held by a Canadian, at the reserve price of US600.  It was said in the listing that it was carved in mid-Qing Dynasty.  I was fascinated by the purity and lustre of the jade piece when I received it.  Its craftsmanship was delicate and in great details, which didn’t look a bit different from my new jadeite carvings with my naked eyes.  But when it was examined under a high power loupe, I saw differences; though I was not sure what they were and what had made them look like that.

At that time, my knowledge on nephrite, especially antique nephrites, was very limited.  So I bought and read a lot of books, especially those on museum collections, to enrich my knowledge.  I joined open forums on jade collections in both Taiwan and PRC.  I participated actively and communicated privately with some honest and frank collectors seeking their views on some doubtful pieces posted on the forums.  I bought quite a lot of new and old nephrite pieces from some reliable sources in PRC, Taiwan and USA through the internet, and also locally, for studying and collection purposes.

My interest on jade collection has always been changing. In the past few years, I only collect antique nephrite jade pieces, not only because of the great craftsmanship of our ancestral cravers, but every one of them carries pieces of unknown history of their former owners that can no longer be dug out.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Next time I shall talk about what jades are from a Chinese point of view.