J 



ADE 



1 5 



Turkestan mines did not come to Peking 

 during the Mohammedan rebellion. 

 The imperial ateliers have not been 

 maintained since i860, but the treas- 

 ures of jade again gathered at the Sum- 

 mer Palace were promptly sold or sent 

 home by the Russian, English, and 

 Italian troops, who in turn occupied 

 that demesne iu 1900 and 1901. The 

 Winter Palace, the temples within the 

 imperial inclosure, and the princes' 

 palaces, in Peking, yielded up an enor- 

 mous treasure of jade in 1900, nearly 

 all of which has found its way since to 

 Europe and America. 



The uses to which j ade has been put by 

 the Chinese are almost endless. Discs 

 of the stone, which when struck give 

 forth a clear, resonant note, are used as 

 temple gongs and musical instruments. 

 Ritual vessels are made of it, and it is 

 to this fact that Paleologue attributes 

 the peculiar veneration in which the 

 Chinese hold the stone. Tablets in- 

 scribed with sacred writings, bowls and 

 vases of fantastic form and intricate de- 

 sign, statuettes of Buddha, perfect alike 

 in conception and execution, candelabra, 

 boxes, pencil-holders and all the para- 

 phernalia of the writing-table, as well 

 as buckles, bracelets, rings, hooks, but- 

 tons, and other ornaments, are all 

 wrought with untiring patience and 

 matchless skill from the same intract- 

 able material. Carved works of jade 

 seldom bear any marks such as are seen 

 on porcelain, whereby a date is indi- 

 cated. Sometimes objects are inscribed 

 with a poem or quotation, which may 

 afford some clue to the date. All such 

 marks are comparatively rare, and the 

 style of ornamentation is generally the 

 only guide. Extreme simplicity of de- 

 sign and purity of form characterize the 

 earliest examples, while those of later 

 periods are often man-els of fantastic 

 and ornate decoration. 



The Chinese rarely embellish their 

 jade carvings with other substances, 

 possibly owing to their excessive admi- 



ration for the stone and the symbolism 

 with which they surrounded it. The 

 Hindus saw in jade, however, only 

 a green background for encrustations 

 of many-tinted gems and gold. It af- 

 forded them opportunities for the dis- 

 play of their cunning, as jewelers, to 

 combine the softly shaded tones of 

 the jade with rubies, diamonds, and 

 other stones, as well as scarcely less 

 brilliant enamel. As a material for 

 artistic workmanship, jade was only 

 known in India from the time of the 

 Moguls, who encouraged its employ- 

 ment unstintingly. The arts of carv- 

 ing in frost-like open-work and of in- 

 laying, which found such perfect ex- 

 pression in the Taj Mahal, were lavished 

 in miniature on jade cups, beetle-boxes, 

 sword and dagger hilts, and turban or- 

 naments, for which there was an unfail- 

 ing demand at court. Work of a less 

 elaborate character was sometimes exe- 

 cuted, and a large jadeite tortoise found 

 in a water-tank at Allahabad is now in 

 the South Kensington Museum. It is 

 bluish gray in color, highly polished, 

 and nearly 20 inches long. Although 

 mines of jadeite exist in Burma, the 

 Hindus probably drew the greater part 

 of their supply from central Asia, and 

 much of that now sold by them as 

 Yarkaud jade is only chloromelanite 

 and serpentine. 



When Captain Cook visited the mid- 

 dle island of New Zealand the natives 

 told him it was called Te Wahi Pounanu, 

 or "the place of the green stone," be- 

 cause all of their much-valued green 

 stones came from that island. In old 

 atlases the island is still called Tavai 

 Poenammo, a corruption of the native 

 name. The natives, like the primitive 

 inhabitants of Europe, fashioned weap- 

 ons called " Meri " from the coarser 

 varieties. Like the celts of the Eake- 

 dwellers, too, many of their implements 

 show traces of having been formed by 

 sawing. There is a large block of New 

 Zealand jade in the British Museum re- 



