56 CHINESE IDEAS OF ANTIQUES 



are adorned with a finely inlaid embroidery of gold thread 

 so worked as to resemble thunder clouds. Flakes of jade 

 were also neatly polished and inlaid in the copper in 

 -exquisite style. Although the Shang dynasty wares had 

 only gold and silver flakes inlaid in its copper wares, and 

 produced very little of the delicate art of gold thread 

 •embroidery, or thunder cloud imitations, yet it cannot be 

 said that the artisan of the Shang period had lost the art of 

 inlaying its copper wares. 



It has already been stated that a copper vessel which 

 has been interred in the earth for the period of a thousand 

 years will be of a cerulean colour. After excavation and 

 cleaning it will be noticed that the colour varies consider- 

 ably during the hours of day and night. From midnight 

 until noon the colour becomes increasingly dull, but from - 

 noon onwards the colour becomes richer and appears as if a 

 -cerulean coloured moisture was oozing from, and covering 

 the whole vessel. In some cases it appears as though this 

 sweat would form into beads and drop to the ground. This 

 phenomenon is caused by the changing light and aura. 

 From midnight until noon the male principle in nature is in 

 the ascendancy but from noon until midnight the female 

 principle predominates and the vivifying aura produces the 

 exquisite effects just described. 



These valuable antiques occasionally have blemishes in 

 the nature of earth corrosions. In such cases the earth's 

 action has rusted the metal thin, or even may have eaten 

 holes in certain parts. These blemishes generally seem as 

 though a snail had crawled over the surface and left its trail 

 behind. If chisel or hatchet marks are discernible thereon, 

 then it is presumably a counterfeit. When a copper vessel 

 has been submerged in water for a long period, the 

 colour will be a pure sky blue, and should glitter like jade. 

 If it has been soaked for a period less than 1000 

 years, its colour will be sky blue, but it will lack the 

 coruscant qualities which characterise the more ancient 

 articles, but corrosions and blemishes similar to those found 

 on articles excavated from the earth will also be observable. 

 It is a generally recognised principle when judging the 

 genuineness of antiques, recovered from the neighbourhood 

 of earth or water, that the genuine article when weighed 

 will be light, but it should be remembered when doing so 

 that some articles were originally larger and thicker than 

 others, and thus take a longer period to rust through and 

 through than an article of slighter make. Such articles, 

 though heavier than some ethers, may none the less be 

 genuine. 



