Articles
In-depth articles on jade — geology, sources, history, carving, collecting and the markets — published by Friends of Jade and its members.
2015 2013 2012 2011 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 1997 1996
2015
Jade Estate Sale
Hello fellow Jade lovers, I will be having a Jade from around the world sale that includes some of my private collections including large boulders, small chunks, slabs and premium carving jades. Also from the Howard Boots collection I will have quality blacks…
2013
Save The Jadefest 2013
Please help us in saving this years Jade festival with signing a petition to Sam Farr to grant us the needed permits to CAMP- PARK-and continue to have the festival as planned this year. To sign go to either mike burkleo Facebook page or joan burkleo Facebook…
DONN SALT and MATT GLASBY WORKSHOP
October 21-25 2013 are the dates to remember! This year for the first time we are honored to have both Donn Salt and Matt Glasby team up to teach our October Workshop. From design elements to tool making Donn and Matt are among the very best carvers today.…
Matt Glasby 2013 Carve-In
The Matt Glasby carve-in was a great success. Students completed multiple pieces and enjoyed the process of learning and working together helping each other along the way to a beautifully completed project. For more info on up-coming events with guest artists…
2012
Matt Gasby Workshop 2012
Here are a few pics from the Matt workshop:
2011
2009
Jades from the major archeological discoveries in China in 2008
Also this year I bring you a summary of the mayor archeological discoveries in China made in 2008 as published by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Cultural Relics Press ( www.Wenwu.com ). In 2008 the discoveries of archeological jades…
The top jade items of the art auctions of 2008
Every year the art publishing house Artouch ( www.artouch.com ) in Taiwan publishes a 700+ page catalogue (purchase via www.yesasia.com for about 90$US) showing the object of the mayor Chinese Art auctions of the preceding year. Also this year a large section…
5500 pages of jades – The 15 volumes of the “The complete collection of jades unearthed in China”
The Science Press of Beijing and the Beijing Institute of Jade Culture have published in 2005 a monumental collection of 15 volumes with about 370 pages each on archeologically well traceable jades found in China. I noticed the volumes recently in Hangzhou…
JADE WORKSHOPS IN VERNON B.C. & FAIRFIELD CA. 2008
Since 1993, Deborah has been offering jade carving workshops at her home based studio, in Vernon, British Columbia. Usually there are only one or 2 participants at a time. Both small and medium scale projects are taken on, with 99% of them completed by the…
2008
Time is running out – The last Fabergé type green Siberian jade boulder?
The workshops of Carl Farbegé in St. Petersburg, located in the Greater Morskoy Avenue, did produce, from 1870 until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918, numerous objets d’art in beautiful emerald green Siberian jade. Eternal Calendar in green nephrite with…
Jade carving in Suzhou, China
Suzhou, also called the Venice of the East because of its picturesque canals or City of the Gardens, is town with about 700.000 inhabitants one hour driving west of Shanghai. Since ancient times, Suzhou is also one of the centers of fine jade carving and,…
Top jade auction prices in 2007
The publishing house Artouch ( www.artouch.com ) in Taipei, Taiwan is publishing each year an overview with the title “ Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Auction ”. In this soft cover book the editors of Artouch list in a very complete and systematic way the…
Jades in major archaeological discoveries in China in 2007
Also this year I bring you the images of the jades and the short descriptions of the major 2007 archaeological discoveries in China. The 2007 edition of this series, a 176 page book (ISBN 978-7-5010-2439-1), has been published by Wenwu, The Cultural Relicts…
2007 auction price expectations of Chinese white jade carvings and boulders
During a recent visit to Hangzhou I have picked up a catalogue of a December 2007 auction of jade organized by the Haohan International Auction House in Hangzhou. I have scanned the relevant pages showing the small jade carvings of recent manufacture as also…
The making of the Beijing Olympic medals in jade
As well known to all of you, the backside of the Beijing Olympic Medals is made in white jade from Geermu (Qinghai) for the gold medal, greyish jade from Qiemo (Xinjiang) for the silver medal and green jade from Xinjiang for the bronze medal. In the following…
From Pig to Dragon and to the Collector - Appraising Neolithic Hongshan Jades
In a previous contribution, I have reported on a book on Hongshan Neolithic Jades of the collection of Mr. Xu Qiang. This collector has published also a book (ISBN 978-7-80142-865-3/Z.436 – 08.2007 – Hua Yi Publishing House, PRC) in which he explains the fine…
From Pig to Dragon – Neolithic Hongshan Jades
One of the most intriguing Chinese Neolithic jade culture is that of the so called Hongshan period (≈3500 to ≈2000BC) considered by many as the source from which the later jade cultures of the Liangzhu period and of the Yellow River Dynasties took many of…
Russia, Old and New - Siberian jade objects
Russia has vast resources of brilliant green and immaculate white Nephrite jade and its artist have been busy transforming it into beautiful objects of art. The best known sources of such objects of art in Russian nephrite jade are the workshops of Carl…
2007
Shetai Jade site in Inner Mongolia
Based on the fragmentary information that the new Shetai jade mine is situated at 1800m altitude near "Dashetai Town, Wulateqianqi, Bayannao'er, Inner Mongolia, China" I have searched via Google Earth in the vicinity of Dashetai for mountains of this…
A new jade mine in Inner Mongolia
A news report from www-china.org.cn from 17.11.2007 brought to our attention by fellow FOJ Eric Hoffman at www.hoffmannjade.com A rare jade mine has been discovered in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and experts are surprised by its huge…
Prices of small Chinese white jade carvings
During my frequent visits to China I always try to get an update of the current prices for small carvings and roughs or pebbles in white jade and report these findings to you. You may have noticed from these reports that the prices of Chinese white jade…
The jades of the Jinsha site in Sichuan,China
During a recent trip to China I found, after travelling at 432Km or 268 miles per hour with the modern marvel, the Maglev magnetic sustention train, from downtown Shanghai to the Airport in the bookshop there A 21 st Century Discovery of Chinese Archeology –…
New trends in jade jewelry design
The International Herald Tribune of the 24/25th of November 2007 carried the following article concerning new trends in jade jewelry design. Here is the copy of this article originally written by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in Singapore. IHT1w.jpg IHT2w.jpg…
California's First International Jade Carvers Workshop
395336-1160839-thumbnail.jpg The Carving Workshop participants not only learned new carving techniques but shared many of their own techniques with the group. 395336-1160837-thumbnail.jpg New Zealand jade master Donn Salt shared many of his working procedures…
Blue Gold
By Mike Burkleo I believe every Jade hunter and most Jade collectors have the blood of the treasure hunter running through their veins. You can often find us sitting around a campfire or kitchen table planning a new adventure or reliving an old one. We marvel…
Deborah Wilson: The Art of Jade
395336-1047902-thumbnail.jpg Deborah Wilson at work Where the green cobbled pathway has taken an Okanagan sculptor What started out to be a part-time job while attending my last year at art school, has gradually taken on a life of its own that I could not…
White jade jewelry - A new approach
In summer 2006 I meet in Hotien/Xinjiang Mr. Ni Guo Dong, the commercial sponsor of the 2006 Jade conference there. Mr. Ni has made his fortune in the booming Chinese Real Estate business and then decided that following his early passion for jade was a better…
Jades from major archaeological discoveries in China in 2006
Every year the Cultural Relics Press ( www.wenwu.com ) in Beijing publishes a book summarizing the major archeological discoveries in China. I have reviewed for you the 2006 edition and the articles therein. I picked those with references to jade items. The…
A mountain scene carved in white jade from Ge'ermu
In 2005 I have been able to secure about 5Kg piece of white jade from Ge’ermu from my supplier of jade roughs. This piece was a split-off fragment about 350mm high, 320mm wide and 60mm thick showing a nice translucency with some opaque portions at one edge.…
The Greens are coming - White nephrite jade from Ge'ermu with green spots
As reported to you in October 2005, a new nephrite jade extraction activity has started in the vicinity of Ge’ermu, a town at an altitude of 2800m in the western Chinese province of Qinghai. The jade from Ge’ermu is now the second white jade source in China…
The Reds are coming - New copies of Liangzhu Jades
In May 2005 I reported in my contribution “Red Jade” about the efforts of local jade carvers to reproduce Neolithic Liangzhu with their typical red blotches. Last month, being again in Hangzhou and scouring the local antiquity markets, I came across now of…
Some recent prices of small carved jade items
The price for rough and carved white jade items in China are rising inexorably. Here some examples seen in the last week of May 2007 in Hangzhou/China. 47g of Khotan River pebble of 1a quality with brown skin. Asking price 12,000$ US 271g of Germu Mountain…
Jade from the Gobi Desert
During my visit last August to the Jade Rivers in Xinjiang , I made a stopover in Urumqi and visited the Jade stores on the Folklore Street. There I came across a palm sized vivid green jade pebble with a dimpled surface from China but of unknown origin. Its…
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever – The Miseroni Lapidaries – Part 3
The stoner carver dynasty from Milan 6. The Miseroni Family in Milan The roots of the Miseroni Family can be traced back until 1460 or the times of Francesco Sforza when Francesco Miseroni, sporting a monkey as a hallmark, was listed as member of the guild of…
Fishing with a jade hook..
catch_of_the_day.jpg This is the first of ten fish caught on a carved jade hook while out at Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Island chain out of Port Hueneme, Ca. aboard the boat " Sea Jay" on May 10, 2006. I caught Blue Bass, Red Snapper, and Chuckle Head…
Souvenirs from Beijing!
One of the most inspiring places in Beijing is the 270ha Park housing the temple of Heaven or Tiantan in the south eastern part of Beijing. These temple buildings date from the period of third Ming Emperor, Yongle (1360-1424). The main buildings found there…
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever – The Miseroni Lapidaries – Part 5
The Miseroni families in Prague during the Thirty Year War 8. Dionysio and Ferdinand Eusebio Miseroni, the last scions of the Stone Cutter Generation Of his boys only Dionysio, born in 1607, followed his grandfather and father in the art of semiprecious stone…
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever – The Miseroni Lapidaries - Part 4
Following the call of the Emperor 7. The Miseroni Family in Prague The records from the Hofstaatsverzeichnis of 1612, the list of the members of the Privy Chamber of Rudolf II indicates that Ottavio has entered Imperial Service in Prague as Edelsteinschnaider…
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever – The Miseroni Lapidaries – Part 2
The Dukes of Mantova and Cosimo I de Medici, the illustrious customers of the Miseroni 4. The Dukes of Mantova as customers of the Miseroni The Duchy of Mantova with its ruling family, the Gonzaga, was a small territory squeezed between the Duchy of Milan,…
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever – The Miseroni Lapidaries - Part 1
Objects of prestige and the Duchy of Milan during the lifetimes of the Miseroni families 1. Introduction This is the third and final part of my contribution about jade at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. It tells the history of six…
A Look At 16 years of Burma Jade Mines
by Fred Ward (With new photographs of the mines supplied by Bill Larson, Pala International) Fred Ward at Burma's famed Hpakangyi jade mine in 2001. Behind him are most of the 10,000 day laborers who hand-carry the debris so pickers can get out the new jade.…
Helicopter Prospecting For Jade
In The Trinity Alps Told by Sam Gitchel and edited by Fred Ward, Charlotte Ward and Maria Goodwin Jade is one of the most prized gemstones in the world. The Orient has traditionally been the world’s primary source for jade, but California’s recent botryoidal…
2006
Jades from mayor archaeological discoveries in China in 2003 and 2004
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China publishes each year, through Wenwu Publishing House ( www.wenwu.com ), a catalogue listing summarized details and pictures of the key archaeological discoveries. After the update on 2005 discoveries,…
Jades from major archaeological discoveries in China in 2003 and 2004
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China publishes each year, through Wenwu Publishing House ( www.wenwu.com ), a catalogue listing summarized details and pictures of the key archaeological discoveries. After the update on 2005 discoveries,…
The half-a-million Yuan Renminbi babies - 2005 jade auction prices
During my recent visit to China I have picked up the 2006 Chinese Arts Auction Record Publication (140p ISBN 7-5356-2429-4/ 2006 – www.arts-press.com) summarizing the prices asked and achieved during 2005 auctions sales of jades mostly in Mainland China. I…
The Perfect Jeweller - Anselmus De Boodt at the Court of Rudolf II
1. Introduction This is the second part of my contribution about Jade at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. Anselmus de Boodt (Boetius in Latin) (1550-1632), a native from Bruges in the Flanders, has left us an 806 page book on Gemmology…
Big Sur Jade Festival 2006
Once again California's favorite jade event has come and gone. The 2006 Big Sur Jade Festival was a huge event this October 6, 7, 8. Trucks, vans, trailers, and tents covered the area around the local schoolyard directly above Jade Cove, always a favorite…
Jade in Khotan
Since my earliest contacts with jade, a visit to Khotan was on my agenda. This summer, having been invited by Mr. Mou (of the Liangzhu/FanShan Jades) and the Jade Culture Research Institute of Beijing to participate in a three day seminar on Jade in Hetian, I…
Jade Trade Chips Away at a Bit of China's Soul
Dear FOJ Members, Today the Los Angeles Times newspaper has a half-page article about Hotan and its jade trade. The main thrust to the narrative is that after 2,000 or more years Hotan is apparently running out of jade. So much mining has been and is…
Jade at the Court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague
One of the persisting mysteries concerning nephrite jade in Europe is the origin of lapidary quality green jade used by Milanese jewellers and lapidaries from about 1520 to 1690 first in Milan and then in Prague for the manufacture of stemmed cups of…
Jades from major archaeological discoveries in China in 2005
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China publishes each year a catalogue listing summarized details and pictures of the key discoveries. The 2005 catalogue has been published in May 2005 by Wenwu Publishing House with ISBN 7-5010-1903-7 (…
Bob Ritchie - Spheres
This contribution to FOJ is from our newest member, Bob Ritchie. Thanks Bob for sharing this with the group. Fred Ward ================ Dear Friends of Jade members: I am a semi-retired medical researcher and physician who since my teen years has been cutting…
Is Google a Friend of Jade?
I am frequently using Google Earth ( http://earth.google.com ) with its detailed satellite views to prepare visits to jade deposits or to review and document the descriptions of the sites. Quite recently Google Earth has uploaded, for numerous non-US places…
The State of the World's Jade Markets
Kirk Makepeace, an old friend, FOJ member, and the world's most successful nephrite miner, has the largest jade operation in the world. We asked Kirk, a Canadian who lives and works in British Columbia, to continue his annual analysis of the world's jade…
Contemporary jade carving made to order: a few superb examples from Shanghai jade carver Wang YunMei
A purist in materials and methods, Wang YunMei served her apprenticeship of many years in the jade carving workshops of Shanghai, working with traditional Hetian white nephrite, now a scarce and expensive material. She works from photographs (usually several…
Small Chinese Jades – Auction prices Winter 2005 in Beijing
Beijing Hanhai Auction Co. Ltd is one of the largest auction houses of China and has organized on November 19 th and 20 th 2005 in Beijing an auction of Chinese Antiquities. The 562 items presented range from porcelain, bronzes, cloisonné ware, ivories, seals…
Silk and Jade - Necklace design examples
I have encountered recently in China a renewal in the world of fashion jewelry pendants and necklaces. These new designs assemble small jade carvings and knotted silk strings into quite pleasant objects with numerous historic and ethnic notes. As several of…
Marco Polo reporting from Kinsay – A new jade hotspot in Hangzhou
My frequent travels to Hangzhou and the fact that I studied near Venice/Italy, brings me this time to report on the local Jade scene via a small detour through the history of Marco Polo’s travel to China and his description of ancient Kinsay or Cansays or…
Old Jade - A new simulant for archaic Liangzhu Jades
Liangzhu culture jades are characterized by creamy white to honey coloured, smoothly polished and mostly opaque surfaces. Such surfaces are not easily reproduced artificially. The present day “Neolithic” artists were thus on the lookout for a suitable rock…
Jade Royale - Royal Jades in France
1. Jade as medicine With the discovery of the Americas in 1492, numerous new animal, herbal and mineral extracts for medicinal purposes started to flow into the apothecaries of Europe’s Kings. These collection of Nature’s specimens become the foundations of…
Food for Thoughts - Are Archaic Jades Copies of Silk Weaving Implements?
During a literature search on jade in the local library, I came across the book “ Archaic Chinese Script and Ritual Jades ” by Leslie Williamson, Yi Publishing, 120 West St., Bridgewater, TA6 7 EU, UK. It has been published, as a revision of an earlier…
Liangzhu Jade - The real McCoy!
During my visits to Hangzhou and the Liangzhu Culture area north of it, the closest I came to real and ancient jade artefacts was at the local museums but always separated by bullet-proof windows from actually touching them. In the last week of November 2005…
White Jade from Khotan – The prices rising!
The booming Chinese Economy, an increased domestic demand and a general rarification of good quality White Jade river pebbles from Khotan/Hetian are the cause that the prices of small craved Nephrite Jade items continue to rise inexorably. At the beginning of…
The Price of Lapis Nephriticus in the Netherlands
The price of Lapis Nephriticus about 1820 in the Netherlands In the search of ancient sources of Nephrite Jade in Europe, I came across in the homepage http://euromin.w3sites.net/photosensmp/photos.html , of the picture of an auction catalogue listing…
Mur Nockerln – Austrian Dumplings in Nephrite Jade!
The small European Nephrite deposits have not resulted in such large quantities of rolled river pebbles that a modern rockhound would have a chance to find them in rivers around their mother lode except maybe if you are an expert Jade hunter like Russell Beck…
Old Chinese Jades: Real or Fake?
by Eric J. Hoffman To view the figures from this article, click here. When President Nixon stepped off the plane in Shanghai in 1972 he did more than just restore relations with China. His visit led to a series of increasingly impressive exhibits in the…
2005
The Tears of the Queen Mother of the West
Adapted From: http://www.britishbornchinese.org.uk/pages/culture/legends/mu.html The origin of Xi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, has given rise to some fascinating speculations, and there are many tales about her. In the Shanhaijing (Book of Mountains…
Friends of Jade Bulletin Vol 6 - 1989
To read the entire paper, please download the .pdf here. You will need Adobe Acrobat to open the file.
Friends of Jade Bulletin Vol 2 - 1981
This second number of the Bulletin is Volume II since we now anticipate a single annual edition. Our irregular Newsletter will be more frequent and emphasize current news about Jade. The Bulletins will continue with articles from members and reprints of…
Friends of Jade Bulletin Vol 1 - 1980
To read the entire paper, please download the .pdf here. You will need Adobe Acrobat to open the file.
History of the Big Sur Jade Festival
In 1989, members of the south coast community formed the Gorda Steering Committee in an attempt to acquire the West Gorda Property. The first Jade Festival was held in 1990 at Gorda. It began with a handful of vendors and local drumming. In 1991, the South…
Big Sur Jade Festival 2005
Some observations on this year's Jade Festival ©2005 Fred Ward, Friends of Jade. With my decades-long involvement with jade, this October I satisfied a long-term goal of visiting the Big Sur Jade Festival. When I lived on the other side of the country, in…
Ge’ermu Jade – Update
As reported in a previous communication to the FOJ, a new source of White Nephrite Jade is being readied for exploitation in the Eastern Kun-Lun range. I have been able to secure the two samples and want to share with you information about his White Jade.…
Fine Chinese Jades, you bet!
The sale of fine Chinese Jades in Chinese and Hong Kong Auction Houses and the realized prices give an indication about the new buying power of Chinese Jade Connoisseurs. In a Chinese book , with the title “Fine Chinese Jades” and published by Shan Dong Art…
Ge’ermu Jade – The Twins #2
A new mine of White Nephrite Jade in China! During my visit to Hangzhou in April this year, I have been shown a small sample of a white and very translucent Nephrite Jade by the sales lady of the Xinjiang Khotan Jade Shop (see also “Gold is valuable but Jade…
The White Jade from the Vitim Mountains in Eastern Siberia
1. Introduction White Nephrite Jade is found in sizable quantities only in Asia, with the most prominent places being the Kun-Lun Mountain and River sites in the Xinjiang Province of China, the Wolgok-ri Talcum mine site near Chuncheon in the Gangwon Province…
Schlagintweit – Modern European Explorers
1.0 Introduction The Kun Lun Mountains in Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China, are the source, since the earliest Chinese Dynasties, of the famous white Nephrite Jade for the Chinese kings and emperors. Jade was collected as water worn boulder…
Mastabia Jade - The Twins
The Jade from the Talcum Mine on Alpe Mastabia – Italy In my contribution to FOJ, Jade News – Fall 2003, I reported about a Talcum Mine in the Italian Alps where an apple yellow-green Nephrite Jade was discovered in the mine tailings. This was the Talcum mine…
Small Jades from the Qing Dynasty
During the last of the Chinese Imperial Dynasties, the Qing, Jades reached under the impulse of the Emperor Qian Long, an unsurpassed artistic level. Next to beautiful pieces for the Imperial Court and Mongol Nobles, quite well known and now reaching…
Mastabia Jade - The Twins
The Twins! The Jade from the Talcum Mine on Alpe Mastabia – Italy In my contribution to FOJ “Jade News – Fall 2003” I reported about a Talcum Mine in the Italian Alps where an apple yellow-green Nephrite Jade was discovered in the mine tailings. This was the…
Sweet Grapes!
Botryoidal Nephrite Jade H.Giess 16.7.2005 One of the most fascinating natural forms of Nephrite Jade is the Botryoidal or Grape like Jade (botrus: grape in Greek). This Jade is found in the form of a mass of coalesced globular Nephrite clusters ranging from…
Kara-Kash Dam
Damned dam! The most precious Nephrite Jade is carried by rivers of the Kuen Lun mountain range from their host rock formations toward gravel field near towns and villages at the Silk Road skirting the southern edge of the Takla Makan desert. Here, since Han…
Polar, Kutcho, Ogden Jade Mines - Satellite Views
Ogden Mt. in tilt mode Ogden Mt. - white likely jade cutting Kutcho at center of picture Polar Jade Mt. center - B.C Herbert Giess June 2005
Jade from Space
In my preparations of field trips and reports on Jade sites, I always enjoy to utilize satellite images so to get a good view of these exotic places for which quite often detailed maps are lacking or not accessible. With a recently acquired, small view finder…
The "Giant Cong" of Linping
The Chinese Authorities recognize more and more the vast cultural heritage thousand of generations have left to the actual inhabitants of the Empire of the Middle and start to integrate, with variable success, key shapes of this cultural heritage into…
Mythical Mountains carved in Jade Pebbles
Some Mythical Mountains carved in Jade Pebbles as seen on the Hangzhou Antiquity market in May 2005 One of my favored Jade pieces are Mountain Scenes carved into Jade pebbles. Here some of them seen on the market and photographed with the available background…
Red Jade
H.Giess May 2005 …..With the red tablet Zhang, he renders homage to the South. (The ceremonial items of the Great Superior of the Rites as reported in the Zhou-Li,) Nephrite with red color can be roughly divided into three categories, river pebbles surface…
Gold is valuable but Jade is precious!
By Herbert Giess Just back from Hangzhou, I want to report you about the actual prices of Khotan White River Jade pebbles. I have visited, in the Hangzhou Flower and Bird Market building, a local dealer of Khotan Jade . I have seen their exquisite carvings in…
China Today - April, 2005
Kirk Makepeace, Jade West I have been traveling to China since 1980 and no matter how many times I visit I am always in awe at the rapid rate of change this country is experiencing, and no more so since my last visit just 24 months ago. The super-freeways,…
China: Dawn of a Golden Age
China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD October 12, 2004–January 23, 2005 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York China’s “medieval” period that followed the Han Dynasty, on through the early Tang, is the least well explored. This exhibition, one of the largest…
Chinese Jades, by Ming Wilson
Chinese Jades, by Ming Wilson. London: V&A Publications, 2004. 127 pp, 116 color & 8 b/w plates. Cloth, color illus d.j. 10 x 8 London’s Victoria and Albert Museum houses one of the world’s finest collections of Chinese jade. Most of the museum’s examples…
Jade: Symbol of Beauty, Nobility, and Perfection
by Eric J. Hoffman For thousands of years jade has been revered throughout Asia as the most precious of all stones, one that ensures good luck and good health and banishes evil spirits. For jewelry, the Chinese value jade above all other gems, believing, as…
Jade News - A look behind the curtains - March 2005
By Herbert Giess A look behind the curtains I have already reported, in December 2004, about Mr. Wu of PingYao (Hangzhou China) and his expert carving of Liangzhu Style Bi’s and Cong’s. Few weeks ago I had the possibility to visit him again in his work shop…
Jade in the Zhou-Li
H.Giess FOJ March 2005 Now also in Chinese Seal Script Characters! In the Bulletin of the Friends of Jade Volume IX of January 1995 I have presented the references to Jade in the Chinese Classic, the Zhou Li or Book of the rites of Zhou. This Chinese Classic…
Jade and North America's Northwest Coast
By Fred Ward (Friends of Jade) Everyone who loves jade (or simply finds it fascinating) soon hears all the stories about China's deep involvement with the material. There is no doubt that China built a culture with jade at its core. The most valuable, most…
Jade: Ch’ing Dynasty Treasures from the National Museum of History, Taiwan
An exhibit at National Geographic Headquarters, Washington Review by Eric J. Hoffman When did the art of Chinese jade carving reach its zenith? The Warring States period has its proponents (including this author); others would argue for the Sung or…
Chinese Jade and Scroll Paintings from the Dongxi Collection
DE BISSCOP, NICOLE. Chinese Jade and Scroll Paintings from the Dongxi Collection. Brussels: Kredietbank NV, 1995. (3) + 140 pp, 76 color plates, 7 b/w figs, maps. Stiff covers, color illus, 11 1/4 x 9 inches. Cataloging an exhibit by a Belgian bank of the…
Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades
(Teng Shu-p’ing, Ed.) Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1995. 247 + (2) pp + 4 pp foldout, 91 jades illus in multiple color plates, add’l color and b/w illus. English and Chinese text. Cloth, gilt and silvered, gold endpapers, color illus d.j. and slipcase. 12…
Jade pebbles galore in the Bazar of Urumqi
Herbert Giess November 2004 Urumqi, (Wulumuchi in Chinese) the capital of the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang and lies 900 metres above sea level is a huge town. About 75 percent of its population is Han Chinese and only 10 percent each are Uighur and Hui…
Jade Hunt in Labrador
James McDonald's Web site This overview of a "Jade Hunt in Labrador" and 20 years later comes to us from James McDonald. Stan Leaming ("Jade in Canada"- now in print again, GSC Library 605 W Robson St., Vancouver BC 604-666-0529.Wrote- 1983 Jade Hunt in…
2004
Neolithic Jades of the Liangzhu Culture in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum of Hangzhou
H.Giess - Friends of Jade December 2004 The emblematic sorcerer riding a mythical beast Picture of the figure engraved on the Fan Shan giant Cong – About 3x its original size A fair cross-section of the Liangzhu Culture Jade artifacts is displayed in the…
Copies of Neolithic Jades of the Liangzhu Culture, Zhejiang, China
H.Giess - Friends of Jade December 2004 Copy of a Liangzhu Cong The term Liangzhu Jade culture relates to one of the most interesting Late Neolithic Cultures (ca.3000 - 2000 B.C) in China, characterized by advanced paddy farming tools, exquisite black…
Antiquity Collectors Market - Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Herbert Giess November 2004 … In Heaven there is the Paradise, in China there is Hangzhou and Suzhou! With these words the Chinese describe the amenities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, two cities located in vicinity of Shanghai in eastern China. Hangzhou, a city of…
Jadeite
By Kim Be Howard, A.G. (C.I.G.) 1. Introduction Jadeite is one of the minerals that fall under the generic category of jade. The word jade is used in both English and French and came, according to the Oxford Universal English Dictionary (Little, Fowler, and…
Two New Polar Nephrite Boulders At California’s Pacific Museum
By Fred Ward Recently two spectacular Polar nephrite boulders were donated to California’s Pacific Museum. The project was possible due to the efforts of two of our Friends of Jade members: Kirk Brock of Rock Solid Jade and Kirk Makepeace, of Jade West. The…
Why Jade?
Dze Kung asked Confucius, saying, ʻAllow me to ask the reason why the superior man sets a high value on jade, and but little on soapstone? Is it because jade is rare, and the soapstone plentiful?ʼ Confucius replied, ʻIt is not because the soapstone is…
Why Jade Part 2 - River Jade Pebbles
H.Giess Fall 2004 A collection of natural River Jade pebbles from the Eastern Sayan and Vitim watersheds in Siberia and from the Kun Lun Rivers in Xinjiang, China The famous answer by Confucious on the question: ....Why is Jade appreciated? engraved in…
Search for Jade in the Yurung-Kash River
H.Giess October 2004 A short note The most valued white Jade (Nephrite) is found in the rivers flowing northward from the Kuen-Lun Mountains in the vicinity of the town of Hotan , Xinjiang, China or the ancient Khotan. and the related trade activities have…
Jade Floor Screen (China)
By Fred Ward Recently a collector in the USA asked if I would help her sell a Chinese floor screen that she acquired years ago. I thought our Friends of Jade members might like to see this unusual piece and even suggest a market. Interestingly she removed…
Huang Shan Lotus Flower Peak
Herbert Giess The Huang Shan Yellow Mountain The famous Behai or Northern Sea of Clouds The Lian Hua Feng Lotus Flower Peak ...Strange pines and wondrous rocks; lofty, majestic peaks and cliffs; flying waterfalls and bubbling streams;....the chattering of…
Polar Jade Lotus Peak
By Herbert Giess The material: This material is the specially structured Polar Jade Nephrite mined by Kirk Makepeace. The material is characterized by a very contorted substructure where watery white areas alternate with emerald colored ones. In the green…
Jade: Occurrence And Metasomatic Origin
1 HARLOW, G. E. and 2 SORENSEN, S. S. 1 American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, U.S.A.; 2 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, U.S.A. The term jade, as used in geology and gemology, refers to two extremely tough, essentially monomineralic rocks…
Jade Tectonics in Central America
George E. Harlow Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA Sidney R. Hemming Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York…
B.C. Nephrite Report, 2004
By Kirk Makepeace I mine three of the four nephrite deposits in British Columbia—Polar, Kutcho, and Ogden. Ogden remains closed but stands to reopen shortly as market conditions demand some of its unique jade. The other mines, including Cassiar, with which I…
GIA Museum Presents Ancient Chinese Jade Carvings from Smithsonian Institution
Nazha Slaying of the Dragon King: This scene from the battle of Nazha and the Dragon King is represented in the mineral nephrite. Transfer from the Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. A collection of…
2003
Jade News - Fall 2003
H.Giess Fall 2003 Dear Friends of Jade! Here some news on Jade I collected this summer and fall and which I want to share with you. 1. Another green takes over! In September this year I had the pleasure to show also to Doug Nichol (Wrexham/UK) the Nephrite…
Jade in Switzerland - April 2003
A visit to two sites with Ann and Russell Beck by Herbert Giess Switzerland Spring 2003 1.0 Introduction In the Bulletin of the Friends of Jade, Volume VIII and published in summer 1994, I had the opportunity to report on the use of Nephrite for Neolithic…
2002
High-pressure, metasomatic rocks along the Motagua Fault Zone, Guatemala
George E. Harlow 1, Virginia B. Sisson 2, Hans G. Avé Lallemant 2, Sorena S. Sorensen 3, Russell Seitz 4 1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY, 10024-5192 U.S.A. 2…
2001
Gem Materials: Opportunites for research and cross-fertilization with education and culture
G. E. Harlow, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192 U.S.A. <[email removed]>. Introduction: Gem materials are natural minerals and rocks whose intrinsic beauty and durability permit their…
1997
Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman
by Robert Kleiner New York (Hong Kong): Alan and Simone Hartman, 1996. xx + (1) + 263 pp, 207 color plates. Cloth, embossed and silvered, color illus d.j. 12 x 8 5/8 inches. $60.00 One of the great pleasures of collecting Chinese jades is to share one’s…
1996
Asbestos and Jade Occurrences - Kobuk River Region, Alaska
TERRITORY OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF MINES B. D. STEWART Commissioner of Mines Pamphlet No.3-R ASBESTOS AND JADE OCCURRENCES IN THE KOBUK RIVER REGION, ALASKA BY ESKILANDERSON JUNEAU, ALASKA’ May, 1945 (Revised to December, 1945) Fig. 1 Map of part of Northwest…
Splendors of Imperial China: Jades from the National Palace Museum
(Wade-Giles transliteration used) Aficionados of Chinese jade quickly come to know the famous examples in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. The NPM’s numerous jade books, and others, have widely published these jades. Now there is a rare opportunity to see…