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Re: Re: Re: AGE? of this 'jade' figure

Posted By: Super
Posted Date: Jan 29, 2014 (08:34 PM)

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Thank you for posting your four jade statues. I really like them and I believe they are at least early 20th century or even earlier. Of course I am no expert and therefore can be wrong. It will be great to hear comments from other collectors.

Again, on my lab top, the 1st and 2nd jade statues appeared to be more greenish but the 3rd and 4th ones appear to be more white. But it is often extremely difficult to judge the true colors of white and celadon jade pieces on digital pictures because celadon will appear white and white will appear celadon.

While it is true that inclusion may not be desirable on any jade carvings but you have to understand the difficulties in even finding enough quality nephrite jade to carve FOUR statues that are about 7.5 inches tall. It will take 2 times to 3 times the raw material to have a finished statue like the size of your statue. Even in today's China, it would not be that easy. Some time if the carver can incorporate the inclusions into the piece or hide them (like on the back), then no harm was done. Of course, if one can find a piece of perfect Hetian nephrite jade stone to finish a statue this size, its value will be astronomical, IMHO.

I am surprised at the number of your statues - four, because group of Chinese statues usually come in 2, 3 or 8.

In your last picture, if I am not mistaken, the three Chinese characters (from right to left) appear to be 運河圖 (Canal Map).

Again, the canal mentioned there may be the

"The Grand Canal 京杭运河, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world; it is a famous tourist destination.[1] Starting at Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BCE, although the various sections were finally combined during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 AD).

The total length of the Grand Canal is 1,776 km (1,104 mi). Its greatest height is reached in the mountains of Shandong, at a summit of 42 m (138 ft).[2] Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the pound lock was invented in the 10th century, during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyo.[3] The canal's size and grandeur won it the admiration of many throughout history, including the Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), the Persian historian Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), the Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504) and the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).[4][5]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canal_%28China%29

Incidentally, the above article mentioned four people and one of them is a Japanese monk and your second statue shown here looks like a Japanese monk to me. The first statue appears to carry some types of architectural instruments (I could not figure out what it was, may be other members can help. I thought it might be a compass). Therefore I really do not know for sure if your four jade statues are that of the four people being mentioned. More researches will be needed.

I really believe you should send some pictures to large auction houses and see what they may say about them.

Again, thanks for sharing them with us and I sincerely hope more experienced jade collectors will comment on them. They are very fascinating to me.

Super

Other links about the Grand Canal:

http://www.china001.com/show_hdr.php?xname=PPDDMV0&dname=IDSGG41&xpos=145

http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh97/maps/ch_b6a.html

http://www.baike.com/wiki/中国京杭大运河博物馆

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