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 Chinese
Jades
by Ming Wilson
 Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
or from Amazon.com
Jade is a substance closely
associated with China where it has been used for millennia
to make a wide range of objects from jewellery to vessels
for food and drink.
We know that jade has been
an important element in Chinese culture and religious ritual
for thousands of years because archaeologists have found
numerous objects buried as grave goods. The earliest date
from around 5000 BC.
Unfortunately for archaeologists,
the custom of including jade grave goods stopped around
220 AD when China split into three separate countries. After
this date, ceramics were the preferred articles to put into
graves.
This new book, Chinese
Jades, was written by Ming Wilson, Senior Curator in
the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).
There she is responsible for the collections of Chinese
jades, carvings and graphic art. She is also author of Rare
Marks on Chinese Ceramics as well as working as co-editor
on two other publications.
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The beautiful illustrations
throughout the book are specially commissioned pictures
of objects in the V&A's superb collection of jades.
They range from the prehistoric to the modern day.
Ming Wilson covers the different
ways jade was used in China, both by the rich in their normal
lives to its place in ritual and religion. There is also
a chapter on other hardstones like chalcedony and agate,
many of which the Chinese valued as highly as jade and used
in a similar way. The author says, "Literary sources
suggest that the Chinese had given names to approximately
26 different stones that they valued as much as jade. The
had also identified 31 stones which they considered 'secondary
to jade'."
Usefully, for anybody considering
buying jade artefacts, there is a chapter on 'Re-use, Imitations
and Fakes'. This is not just a book for the beginner, though.
As Ming Wilson draws on the latest archaeological data,
as well as ancient Chinese sources, it will add to the knowledge,
and prove to be a valuable reference book, for expert collectors
and dealers.
Quick
Facts
Title: Chinese
Jades
Authors:
Ming Wilson
Publisher: V&A
Publications
ISBN:
1851774416
Binding: Hardback
Publication Date: August
2004
Price: £30
All information relates to
the UK edition.
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