On the Jade Artifacts Preserved by An Siyuan
An Siyuan was known as the "Godfather of China Antiques." He had a wide collection of art. Although he was not famous for collecting jade, his collection of jade was also fascinating. The jade in the collection was a jade handle (Lot571), 9.1cm long. It came from An Siyuan's old collection, New York, and was collected before 1999. It was auctioned by Christie's in New York on March 19, 2015. The auction number was 575, and the estimated price was 50,000 - 70,000. His collection of jade articles covered different periods, such as the Western Zhou Dynasty jade Cong, Liangzhu era jade ring, Eastern Zhou Dynasty jade Cong, etc. There were various types of jade Cong, jade ring, jade Zhang, jade Yuan, jade tube, jade dagger, etc. Read more exciting novels for free
How to Appreciate Jade Artifacts and How to Appraise Jade Artifacts
Appreciating and evaluating jade articles can be done from the following aspects: * * 1. Material ** 1. * * Color **: The color of natural jade is natural, and the color distribution is even and natural. The color of dyed jade is gorgeous, regular, and floating on the surface. For example, all kinds of jade should have this natural color characteristic. 2. * * Hand feeling **: Due to the different density, the jade feels different. For example, Hetian jade had a high density, and it felt heavy and cold. Generally, natural jade felt like it was falling when held in the hand, while fake jade was often light and floating. 3. * * Internal structure **: Observing the internal structure of the jade with light, the internal structure of the natural jade is naturally orderly. For example, under the light or sunlight, the internal structure of natural jade looked comfortable, while artificial imitation jade may have obvious artificial traces and even bubbles inside. 4. * * Gravity **: Natural jade has a high density, which can be judged by measuring its gravity. For example, Hetian jade, jade, and other dense jade stones could feel their weight in his hand. * * 2. Styling ** 1. * * Overall styling **: The proportion of the styling should be balanced and harmonious. It should not appear stiff. It should pay attention to the overall beauty. 2. [Details: For a jade with a shape, details are very important. For example, the lines must be smooth, without any broken lines, and the thickness must be uniform and appropriate.] * * 3. Craftsmanship ** 1. * * Pattern **: Pattern is an important part of jade appreciation. It is a form of ancient art. Different periods had different characteristics of decorative patterns, and their complexity might contain the cultural thoughts of the time, which not only helped to determine the generation of jade articles, but also helped to understand the life, culture, and thoughts of the people at that time. Moreover, good jade articles had smooth lines, uniform thickness, and more charm. 2. * * Craftsmanship Difficulty **: For example, some jade carvings of the Han Dynasty have high requirements for artistry, craftsmanship, and material. They can be used as a reference to determine the value of jade. * * 4. Sound ** Hanging the jade with a rope, hanging it in the air and fixing it properly, and then gently knocking it with another jade stone, the sound of natural jade knocking out is clear (as the ancient saying goes, the sound is melodious), but the sound of fake jade knocking out is more muffled. He could also use the jade to knock on the jade to judge by the sound. * * 5. Historical and cultural value ** 1. * * Age **: Jade articles of different ages have different historical and cultural values. For example, the Han Dynasty was the peak period of Chinese jade articles. Jade articles of this period were unique in terms of artistry and craftsmanship. 2. Jade ware is a high-level cultural carrier. It reflects ancient politics, etiquette, commerce, totems, religion, beliefs, and even life customs and aesthetic tastes. It carries rich cultural content. When appreciating and evaluating jade, one had to consider all the above aspects. One could not draw conclusions based on just one factor. If there were still doubts after the initial judgment, the jade could be sent to a professional appraisal agency for appraisal. The appraisal report issued by the formal agency when the merchant sold it could also be used as a reference. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
White Jade Artifacts
There were many types of white jade and jade crafts. From the pendant, there was a Hetian jade white jade hollowed-out auspicious Ruyi fortune pendant. Its wholesale price varied according to the number of purchases. The material was Hetian jade, the craftsmanship was carving, the clarity was pure, and the size was about 37*53 mm. There were also some Buddha statues and other crafts made of white jade, such as the pure white jade immortal sitting on the raft, pure white jade brush (a pair), pure white jade sheep beast incense burner, pure white jade ring ear reward vase, pure white jade Amitayus Buddha sitting statue, pure white jade Sakyamuni Buddha standing statue, pure white jade bowl (a pair), white jade flower Ruyi ear vase of the Republic of China, pure white jade rhinoceros looking at the moon screen, etc. In addition, there were amphoras made of white jade. Some white jade products were also used to make national gifts, such as the national gift white jade craft plate made of calligraphy materials. In terms of price, the price of white jade products varied greatly due to quality, craftsmanship, and other factors. For example, bracelets made of suet white seed material were expensive. If there was any, the capital would be 60,000, and the selling price could reach 75,000. After bargaining, it could be sold at 29,000. Some of the white jade crafts had also won various awards. For example, in 2006, the white jade Dharma won the Gold Award of the Jade Tripod Cup, and in 2009, the white jade Hendustan Pot won the Gold Award of the China Jade Hundred Flowers Award. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Antique Jade Artifacts
Antique theme jade was a common type of modern jade production. From the point of view of the purpose of production, one could not simply regard all antique jade articles as fakes. Many of the modern antique style jades were not intended to impersonate the ancient jade of a certain dynasty. This kind of jade, which was called "new life" in the jade industry, had a unique position in the market. It was very different from the fake ones that were intended to impersonate ancient jade. However, the situation in the antique jade market was complicated. On the one hand, low-end antique jade was mostly sold on the street, targeted at newcomers who had just entered the ancient jade circle and lacked eyesight and funds. Most of these goods were made of garbage materials and sold wholesale after simple carving. They were often accompanied by fabricated stories, such as " three-piece set at the construction site ". Although the profit per piece was low, due to the large quantity, they could still earn a lot of profit. On the other hand, with the development of technology, there were high-quality imitations that were targeted at experts with a certain level of insight. The person who made the high-quality imitations might be an expert in ancient jade. They used old materials, according to the traditional style of the collection, using a combination of machines and handwork, or even self-made tools to make antique jade. They could reach a 90% degree of authenticity, thus misleading many players. In the aspect of identifying ancient jade, there were many ways to fake ancient jade and they were kept secret. For example, the imitation of Blood-seeping Jade could be done by placing the jade in the mud made of pig's blood and yellow soil to form the appearance of soil biting and blood-seeping. To imitate soil rust, one could bury the rubber-coated jade in the yellow soil mud. To make the old look new, one could heat wax on the old jade. There were two ways to make black spots on ancient jade. One was to burn the boiled jade on an iron grill while touching wax oil. The other was to wrap the jade with wet cotton and slowly roast it with water repeatedly after making it in the ancient method. There was also the old method of extracting oil, using the red light grass juice and sand to marinate the new jade texture, then roasting it with bamboo fire to make the Blood Jade to confuse the experts, etc. In addition, for some jade articles that were difficult to judge, such as jade articles in the Hongshan culture style, it was difficult to judge whether they were authentic from the Hongshan culture period, antique jade articles with the Hongshan culture style, or modern antique jade articles just by appearance. This required in-depth research and discussion. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
The Jade Artifacts of Rongcheng
The Rongcheng Museum has jade artifacts of different ages. Among them, there was a piece of jade from the Qin and Han Dynasties from the end of the Warring States Period to the beginning of the Han Dynasty. It was unearthed in 1982 at the Dongjing Building of Chengshantou Ruins (now Wolong Village). The jade was damaged, the jade color was green and white, and the surface was decorated with grain patterns. The two pieces of jade were the same color as the jade, both plain, and each had a hole at the bottom. There was also a jade pendant from the Han Dynasty that was collected in Buliu Town. It was white jade with dark brown carvings on some parts. One corner was missing and the shape was like a Huang. It was carved with cloud patterns and beast patterns, and there was a horned dragon on one side of the top. In addition, in October 1979, the villagers of Wolong Village near Chengshantou found a group of jade articles including one jade wall, two jade guides and one jade Huang when leveling the mound. This group of jade articles was sent to the museum of Qing Dao for collection. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Ancient Jade Artifacts
There were many types of ancient jade articles, which could be divided into ritual vessels, accessories, containers, musical instruments, funeral articles, etc. In terms of ritual vessels, there were jade Bi used to sacrifice to heaven, jade Cong used to sacrifice to the earth, Gui, Zhang, Hu, Huang used to sacrifice to the four directions, Gui used by emperors and vassals for court betrothal gifts, sacrifices, funerals, Mao held by emperors, Cong used to sacrifice to the four directions of heaven and earth, etc. The accessories included all kinds of jade jewelry (such as hair ornaments, earrings, finger ornaments, wrist ornaments, arm ornaments, string ornaments, etc.), jade pendants, jade belt hooks, jade belt plates, rings (as ornaments to show identity), jade ornaments (knots on ancient hats), jade hairpins (jade hairpins, ancient women's jewelry), jade hairpins (long needles used by men to tie up their hair or crowns), Zigang cards, etc. The containers included Jue for drinking wine, Bi for warming wine, Zan for offering sacrifices like a spoon, jade nuptial cups used by young couples in ancient times for marriage and drinking, and jade pots. The musical instruments included jade pipes (wind instruments), jade chimes (percussion instruments), and jade zither poles (jade zither pillars). Funeral supplies include jade clothes. There were also jade items such as the dragon used to pray for rain, the jade used to decorate the end of the scabbard, the jade used to swear blood vows in ancient times, all kinds of insect-type jade articles such as jade insects (cicadas), jade bracelets for health preservation, jade ornaments for exorcism, and ancient wine vessels and jade cups. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Digging Jade Artifacts
There were many situations in which jade artifacts could be dug underground. If jade articles were excavated in legal archaeological excavation activities, such as jade, and other jade articles extracted from the archaeological excavation of Wuwangdun No. 1 Tomb, this was an act with scientific research value and was strictly managed and protected. However, if it was like Xingguang Li in Liwan, Guangzhou, it was illegal for some "treasure diggers" to take advantage of the opportunity to break into residents 'homes or excavate jade scraps on the ground in front of shops during the old renovation process. These " treasure diggers " broke into other people's houses, damaged property, and injured others. This was considered trespassing and could constitute trespassing. There were also cases where farmers accidentally discovered ancient tombs with jade artifacts during normal production and living activities such as digging sweet potato cellars. For example, when Jiangsu farmers dug sweet potato cellars, they found jade coffins and jade clothes with golden threads. The correct approach should be to contact the local cultural relics department or experts, and not to dig privately. If jade was dug out while digging vegetables at a grave, if it was determined to be an accidental discovery in normal production activities and there was no intentional or permitted explanation for grave robbing, but if professional grave robbing tools were used and suspected of grave robbing, it would violate the provisions of Section 328 of the Criminal Law and could face a maximum penalty of three years. In short, the legitimacy of underground excavation of jade depended on the location, purpose, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
The Origin of Jade Artifacts
As for the origin of jade, the academic community speculated that it could be traced back to the late primitive society based on the records that came out later. For example, the Bamboo Book Annals and other documents mentioned that there were records of jade articles during the period of the Yellow Emperor, Shun, and Xia Yu, about 4200 years ago. At that time, the origin of jade seemed to be related to the Queen Mother of the West in the Kunlun Mountains in the West. There should be more jade origins in the Xia Yu era. However, archaeological excavation shows that the history of China people using jade is much earlier than recorded in the literature. As early as seven or eight thousand years ago, the primitive ancestors had created jade culture on both sides of the Liaohe River and Songhua River. Moreover, prehistoric jade articles were widely distributed and varied in texture. Before the Shang and Zhou Dynasties widely used Hetian jade in the Western Regions, they experienced an era of "jade and stone were not separated, and local materials were used". <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Jade Artifacts of Xianyang
The jades in Xianyang have profound historical and cultural meanings and unique artistic value. The Xianyang Museum collected the "Six Treasures of Weiling" unearthed from the architectural site of Weiling, the eighth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Hanyuan. These six jade treasures were respectively Jade Immortal Running Horse, Jade Bear, Jade Eagle, Jade Evil Repelling (2 pieces) and Jade Figurine Head. Among them, the Jade Immortal Running Horse is composed of three parts: running horse, feathered man and pedal, reflecting the thought of "ascending to immortality" in the Western Han Dynasty; The jade bear is made of Hetian seed material in Xinjiang, which shows the clumsy and cute bear with various carving techniques; The jade eagle's legs and claws are close together, which reflects the worship of the ancients to the eagle; The jade is made of Hetian white jade, which shows the fierce and fierce dominance of the evil spirit; The jade evil spirit presents the fierce look before hunting; The jade figurines are exquisitely carved and lifelike. These six round jade carvings were discovered in succession from 1966 to 1976. They were rare treasures among the national jade carvings. They had extremely high historical, artistic, and scientific value and were invited to participate in the Nanjing Museum's 90th anniversary special exhibition. In addition, the third exhibition hall of the Xianyang Confucian Temple Museum displayed a group of jade articles unearthed from palace ruins and tomb areas. These jade articles were also representatives of Qin Xianyang's handicraft products, which witnessed the craftsmanship level at that time. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Jade Plate and Jade Artifacts of Han Dynasty
The jade wares of the Han Dynasty inherited and developed the tradition of the jade wares of the Warring States Period. In the Han Dynasty, ceremonial jade articles (the so-called "auspicious jade") were less than before, and daily necessities and decorations made of jade developed greatly. Jade plates belonged to the category of daily necessities made of jade. For example, the Palace Museum had a jade plate with a dragon handle from the Han Dynasty. In terms of craftsmanship, the Han Dynasty had more round carvings, high embossed, open-cut jade carvings, and jade inlaid objects than before. The decorative style changed from abstract to realistic. In addition, there were also Han Dynasty jade plates on sale, such as the Hetian jade Han Dynasty jade plate on sale on September 13th, 2024. The price was 23,688 yuan, and the quality was 95 grade. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>
Children's Jade Artifacts
As for children's jade craftsmanship, there was such an example. In the social education activity center of Changde Museum, more than 30 children and parents experienced the prehistoric jade processing skills. During the experience, the staff distributed a square jade stone, a wooden knife, a string, a plate of jade sand, and a glass of water to each group of families. The children began to experience it with their parents. They first dipped a wooden knife into the jade sand and cut a mark on the jade stone. Then, they used a string to drive the jade sand to continue cutting. After cutting, the section would show a wavy effect. <a href="/?from=ask_words" style="color:red" target="_blank">Read more exciting novels for free</a>