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Part IV MISCELLANEOUS
Chapter 19. Jade and other stones
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STONES from comparatively hard jade to the aptly named soap-stone have
always presented a challenge to the craftsman. Whenever they were to be found in
suitable size and shape it was an invitation to the lapidary to attempt to
fashion them into works of art. The comparison between a rough natural stone and
the result of careful carving and polishing never ceases to surprise and delight
the onlooker. The finest specimens barely indicate the skill and patience that
contributed to their finished form, but a brief study will show why the Chinese
and others revered jade and why Europeans attempted to rival rock-crystal with
glass.
Jade
The Oriental mind has woven a wealth of legend into this stone, which varies
in colour from pale grey-green and light lavender to a deep green that is almost
black in some lights. It is divided by geologists into two distinct types:
jadeite and nephrite. The latter is slightly less hard and under a microscope it
will be seen that 'in cross-section the fibres have cleavage cracks
intersecting, not at approximately 90°, as in jadeite, but at 120°, and there
are numerous other differences . . .' However, few, if any, collectors attempt
to distinguish between the two, and describe them both as jade.
The stone is alleged by the Chinese to have been forged from a rainbow in order
to make thunderbolts for the God of Storms, and it is also the traditional,
although surely unpalatable, food of the Taoist genii. By most of the nations of
antiquity it was regarded as possessing magical and curative properties; not
only was it looked on also as a symbol of virtue, but it was supposed to be of
value in the cure of diseases affecting the kidney.
Ancient jade objects of various shapes were used for ceremonial purposes and
many of them have been excavated in modern times. They have received much
attention from scholars and are rarely to be seen outside museums. The Chinese
jade that is most likely to be found by the collector is seldom older than the
eighteenth century. Being a hard stone it acquires few signs of wear, and with
the Chinese habit of copying the designs of earlier days it is not easy to
determine the age of many specimens. Large pieces of undoubted age can be very
costly, but small examples of less certain vintage may be found for no more than
a few pounds apiece.
The so-called 'Mogul' jade is usually of a pale grey-green colour, carved very
thinly and often with pierced decoration. Some was inlaid with gold and precious
stones, which seem to acquire an added fire against the background of the limpid
stone. The Mogul jades were made in India, but were esteemed sufficiently by the
Chinese for the Imperial workshops to have a department where work in this
manner was produced.
A green nephrite found in New Zealand was used by the natives to make axe-heads
and ornaments. Of the latter, the 'Tiki', a ferocious-looking distorted human
figure, represents the Maori Creator who 'took red clay, and kneaded it with his
own blood'. These pendant talismen are flatly rendered, and usually about three
inches high and one and a half inches wide. Specimens some nine inches in height
are known but are very rare when so large, and collectors should beware of
modern copies of them in all sizes.
Soapstone
After jade, the principal stone carved by the Chinese is soap-stone, a very
soft material varying in colour from a light brown or pale green to a
distinctive rich and deep red. It is easily scratched with a pin and reduces to
a white powder, it breaks without much difficulty, and in spite of these obvious
differences is sometimes mis-called jade by optimistic owners of specimens. In
the eighteenth century it was often carved in the form of figures of the
Immortals of the Taoist religion; more recently it has been used for vases with
carved and pierced ornament, and for wine- and tea-pots.
Old pieces of soapstone will be found to have been neatly and carefully
finished, and to have a high polish that is lacking in modern specimens. Many
old examples have a subtlety of colour that is worthy of a more durable
material.
Quartz
A pale pink-coloured or a green-coloured variety of quartz was carved by the
Chinese into decorative vases and figures. Most examples are clumsy in
appearance and not very carefully carved; few are very old.
Other stones
Many other decorative stones, both large and small, have been used by
lapidaries in both East and West; the list of them is too long and their
descriptions too involved to be included here. However, mention must be made of
two of the more important.
Derbyshire Spar, known also as Blue John (surmised to be a corruption of
the French 'bleu-jaune' from the prevalent colours of the stone), an unusually
vividly marked variety of fluorspar mined in Derbyshire, and made into vases and
other ornaments from about 1770. Some of the finer eighteenth-century examples
have ormolu mounts which were made by Matthew Boulton in Birmingham.
A transparent variety of quartz is rock-crystal, which was carved with
consummate skill in both Classical and Renaissance times. Examples of European
work are seldom seen outside the principal museums, and the magnificence of most
of the surviving specimens is a clear indication of why they were, and are
still, so highly valued specimens of Chinese carved rock-crystal are sometimes
to be seen. They take similar forms to jade, and both vases and figures were
made.
Hardstones of many kinds were used for the making of decorative panels, known as
Pietre Dure or Florentine Mosaics, for table-tops and other purposes by the
Italians. A workshop for this purpose was started by the Grand Duke of Tuscany
at the end of the sixteenth century and, apart from specimens in museums and
collections all over the world, there is a museum in Florence devoted to the art
(the Museo dell' Opficio delle Pietre Dure). In addition to making panels to
form pictures in the manner of marquetry, but using coloured marbles and stones
instead of wood, other panels were made with the inset stones carved in relief:
bunches of highly polished cherries were a popular subject.
The Japanese family of Shibayama introduced the inlaying of coloured shell and
other material into their ivory carvings, and from this spread the inlaying of
hardstones, mother-of-pearl and anything else considered suitable into panels of
lacquer. All this inlaid work is known as Shibayama, although it only faintly
resembles the original work of the family.
BOOKS
Jade is the subject of Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, by S. C. Nott
(1936); in which pieces are described and illustrated in black and white and in
colour.
Chinese Jade Carving by S. Howard Hansford, 1950, illustrates fewer
examples, but the information it contains is valuable.
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