Feb., 1912. Jade. 323 



Three fruit-dishes of white jade are illustrated on Plate LI I. 

 Figures 1 and 2 are derived from a set of four identical in material, 

 shape and design, carved in a very thin, transparent milk-white jade 

 with clouded onion-green patches. Figure 1 shows the interior, Figure 

 exterior of these dishes (4 cm high, diameter 13.3 cm), decorated 

 pith two zones of meanders encircling a floral wreath in flat relief. 

 Figure 3 on Plate LII, one of a set of two (10 cm in diameter, 1.3 cm 

 high), represents another type of dish, shallow, the edge being cut out 

 in five petals as in certain metal mirrors of the T'ang period, with a 

 raised circular portion in the centre which has a slight depression for 

 the reception of small nuts or the like, while other kinds of fruit are 

 grouped around in the outer compartment. Both sets are works of the 

 K'ien-lung period (1 736-1 795). 



While all of the ancient jade vases have their prototypes in a bronze 

 . and while it may be safely asserted that hardly any new forms of 

 Is were produced in jade, there are nevertheless two processes of 

 technique applied to jade which we do not encounter in ancient bronze. 

 The one is exemplified by the above jade censer entirely carved in open- 

 work, the other by the bowls with high undercut reliefs, a style and 

 ferocess which seems to set in from the time of the Sung dynasty. We 

 ipan but presume that the peculiar character of stone, and in particular 

 of jade, easily lent and adapted itself to these two modes of work, and 

 that they were first developed and cultivated in stone, not in metal. 

 Under the Sung, also bronze vessels appear covered with undercut 

 ts in relief, and there are fine examples of them in our collection, 

 but I do not know of any early bronzes, Chou or Han, subjected to 

 this kind of treatment. I am there ..ore inclined to assume that this was 

 a later development (possibly goinj.', back to the days of the T'ang dynas- 

 ty), and that this technique wa? transfeircd from jade to bronze. In 

 both materials, it was extensively practised under the Ming and in the 

 eras of K'ang-hi and K'ien-lung, and from the latter period, we possess 

 also a great number of bronze vessels, especially censers and braziers, 

 the bodies or covers of which are executed in open-work. In dealing 

 with these productions, it will be necessary to refer to the corresponding 

 jade pieces, and to make a careful comptarison between the ornamenta- 

 tions of both. 



