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There are some Chinese jade carvings in The Denver Art Museum. It appears that the jade chains are indeed one piece, not added later. I've looked for cut marks on the end loops to show that maybe they were cut in half and attached but the entire piece looks to be "cut from one block of jade" like a lot of pieces are advertized. Seems impossible but what do I know? Especially mind blowing is the two piece carving attached by one chain. Yikes! Truly cut from one piece?

If you doubt, place to ask is museum has object, not message board which can tell next to nothing about your question from photographs.

Good luck,
Cal

Indeed this is correct, vessel and lid being connected by a chain, never separated. If it was otherwise, then it would not be a masterpiece. Mind you, it took months to make some carving like that.On the other side, sometimes one can encounter a carving with chain, but poorly made, high speed, good for the tourist market.
Ernest

Yes cut from one piece, common in the qing dynasty fom 1700 till about 1900, seemed to go out of favour with advent of electric powered tools, think the high speed vibration made shattering too likely. Lovely effect though isnt it...

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