Chinese Jade of Five Centuries. Joan M. Hartman

from the Burmese stone. "Japanese jade" has a pale green to white ground spotted with green and black flecks and is not translucent. In contrast to the Burmese material it does not take a high polish. Thus, while being the genuine article it lacks the lovely appearance of its Burmese relative.

      "Imperial" Jade

      The term "Imperial" was originally applied to jade carvings which came from one of the imperial palace collections. As such, these examples were of the highest caliber. We often hear pieces described as "Imperial green jade" or "Imperial white jade" and assume that reference is being made to nephrite or jadeite carvings of the finest quality. However, in recent years it has become common practice to label almost any jade carving as "Imperial" for commercial purposes. In fact the term has been bandied about so carelessly that it no longer carries any legitimacy and should be taken with a grain of salt when heard. One must rely upon one's own knowledge or that of a trusted adviser to determine whether a jade carving is of superlative quality, average, or not worthy of consideration. Name tags mean nothing.

      Carving Jade

      The actual fashioning of a jade sculpture is a remarkable, arduous procedure. To begin with, a portion of the outer covering or rind of the boulder is cut away and polished to reveal the inner color qualities or veins of the material. It is then decided, according to shape, size, and color composition, the subject best suited to the rough. In modern factories, the manager of the shop makes this decision and draws the design on the jade hulk itself. He then hands the cutting job to the first of many workmen who will contribute his particular talent to the whole. Each carver specializes in one or more phases of the carving process. So a finished carving is the creation of a number of craftsmen who have combined their talents to fashion a work of art. This system did not always exist. It probably came into being during the Ming dynasty and fully blossomed in the period of K'ang-hsi and Ch'ien-lung.

      The working of jade is done by hand-operated, simple machinery equipped with tools similar to dentists' drills. Power for the various steel cutting implements is derived from electricity in more modern factories, but up to recent times the gears were turned by a foot-treadle process much like our old fashioned sewing machines. There are many different sizes and shapes of tools employed to execute the splitting of a boulder, the hollowing out of a bowl, the intricate incising of motif, the delicate completion of a loose-ring chain, each requiring the appropriate cutting instrument.

      But it takes more than steel to cut jade, for the operation is fundamentally a grinding or wearing away of the stone. Crushed "sand" is used in conjunction with the cutting tools. Hansford has written that up to the time of the collapse of the Manchus in 1912 this sand consisted of quartz, almandine, garnets, and black corundum. Today the most popular abrasive is a synthetic material known as carborundum. This wet abrasive is spread upon the jade rough by hand and replenished periodically. Slowly, tediously, using these very primitive means, the natural rock is shaped into the finished vase, incense burner, mountain of the most precise detail. The last step, that of polishing the completed article, is accomplished with a buffing wheel and a paste called pao yao made of carborundum and other sands found in China.

      Undoubtedly, in earlier times there were individual artists who conceived the original design and carved the jade in its entirety. Much to our regret, however, jade carvings were rarely signed by the artist. And to make things more difficult, the names of jade craftsmen have neither been recorded nor are they mentioned in old Chinese literature (see page 30). We do note a definite similarity of design in a great many jade carvings, but often come across a piece which is unique in subject, of unusually fine detail, showing an understanding of the material which goes beyond the everyday encounter. Many of the older carvings, particularly those attributed to the Ming dynasty, have this distinguishing quality; each piece being a work of art in itself, displaying the imaginative ability and inspiration inherent to the Chinese lapidary alone.

      Richard Gump speaks of the Chinese jade artist as follows: "Many aspects of his craft were traditional, yet no two pieces of jade were the same; each was in itself a new challenge. His greatest talent lay in his acute sensitivity to the stone. He had to know the stone intricately, aware of every flaw and imperfection, intuitively sensing its concealed virtues and potentialities. He was constantly aware of its limitations, yet knew he could do with this material what could never be done with any other His eyes had to be able to see below the surface of the stone, judging how far a streak of color would penetrate, in which direction it would turn " [17].