41 G JADE. 



name for jade,) which is found in commerce, is of two sorts, one being 

 truly a mineral, and the other produced by art. The mineral jade is 

 yellowish, of the aspect of old ivory. It is hard and shining, and is a 

 natural product. But the impossibility of distinguishing the real from 

 the artificial jade causes them to be held at the same price. It is sup- 

 posed that all the vases found in commerce are of the natural yeschm, 

 which gives them their exorbitant value. 



According to this passage we might infer that artificial jade was not 

 to be found in Persia. But it is found in China. The fourteenth book 

 of Tcheou-li expresses indignation at the counterfeits and commercial 

 frauds already well known, twelve hundred years before our era, a 

 testimony fully confirmed by the chapter of imperial regulations ( Wang- 

 tchi) in the Ti-Ki or code of ceremonies. 



Teng-you en-yang also, a commentator on the ritual of Tcheou, who 

 flourished in the time of Ming, declares that adulterations abound in 

 everything. The common dealers dampen the rice and mix hemp with 

 silk, the pedlers make jade out of common stones, the shopkeepers 

 imitate antique objects with modern materials and sell the new for the 

 old. 



The Arabian writer, Mahomined ibn Mansour, author of the " Djeouar- 

 Nameh," or The Book of Precious Stones, declares that in China false jades 

 (yescheb) are manufactured, but can be distinguished from the natural 

 stone by a slight smoky odor. " If a vase of the true yescbeb is broken 

 it may be repaired with counterfeit material which can with difficulty 

 be distinguished from the real, and Telfaschi declares likewise that 

 artificial jade is made in China by the combination of many substances. 

 Vases so made are imported into Arabia. I have not seen any such in 

 Egypt or Syria." He expresses himself with complaisance relative to 

 some successful attempts he has himself made for this purpose in the 

 country of the Pharaohs. It is understood that this artificial jade is a 

 kind of glass known as rice paste. In China and Japan they manufacture 

 this as a very hard enamel, but at the same time quite fusible, of which 

 there is a chemical analysis by Klaproth. 



These statements are sufficient, as we think, to place amateurs on 

 their guard against counterfeits, which in both the East and the West 

 are being more and more practised in all departments of curious and 

 antique works. 



Among Chinese monuments of art of the first rank which exist in 

 Europe, we must first notice the admirable works in jade belonging to 

 the crown of France kept at the Garde Meuble. An inventory prepared 

 in 1791 mentions a grand oval cup, or vase, in greenish jade, of the esti- 

 mated value of 72,000 francs ; also a round cup in white jade of 12,000 

 francs. Unless we are deceived, these cups are now exhibited in one of 

 the rich glazed cases of the Gallery of Apollo, Museum of the Louvre, 

 Xos. 630 and 637. 



The great Paris Library, in its cabinet of antiquities, possesses also 



