JADE—a HOBBY for DISCERNING COLLECTORS 
The Finest Art of the Orient Is Found in These Carvings 
of Yu, Pi Yu and Fei ts’ui 
GARDNER TEALL 
Photographs by Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
S IX HUNDRED years ago the celebrated 
Friar Oderic journeyed through Asia. 
Reaching what was then called Cambaluk, now 
Peking, he was amazed at the extent and mag¬ 
nificence of the Great Khan’s palace. In the 
midst of it, he wrote, “is a certain great jar, 
more than two paces in height, entirely formed 
of a certain precious stone called Merdacas, 
and so fine, that I was told its price exceeded 
the value of four great towns. It is all hooped 
round with gold, and in every corner thereof is 
a dragon, represented as in act to strike most 
fiercely, and this jar has also fringes of net¬ 
work of great pearls hanging therefrom, and 
these fringes are a span in breadth. Into this 
vessel drink is conveyed by certain conduits 
from the court of the palace; and beside it 
are many golden goblets from which those 
drink who list.” 
salted vegetables. The Emperor Ch'ien Lung 
bought it of them for a few hundred ounces of 
silver and composed an ode in its honor to be 
engraved inside the bowl in which he tells the 
story. It is a tall bowl with flat bottom and 
upright sides, shaped like one of the large pot¬ 
tery fish-bowls, called yu kang, which the Chi¬ 
nese use in their gardens for gold fish or lotus 
flowers, and is boldly carved outside with gro¬ 
tesque monsters and winged horses disporting 
in sea waves.” 
For centuries jade has been revered as the 
very quintessence of heaven and earth by the 
Chinese. They have endowed it emblematic- 
Jsjtfci.- 
A jade bowl of the Chia Ching Period (1796- 
1820), wonderfully wrought and pierced 
in intricate design 
The Jar of Merdacas 
This jar of Merdacas was none other than 
the famous jar of jade now standing, I am 
told, in one of the courtyards of the Impe¬ 
rial Palace at Peking. Concerning the later 
history of this precious object Bushell says: 
"The jar, mounted so lavishly with gold and 
pearls, disappeared at the fall of the Mon¬ 
gol dynasty, and was stripped of its orna¬ 
ments. It was found again in the 18th 
Century in the kitchen of a Buddhist tem¬ 
ple in the vicinity, where the ignorant 
monks were using it as a receptacle for 
ally with most of the virtues. Fortunately 
these attributes were not confined to such ton 
weight pieces as that chronicled by Friar 
Oderic and rescued by Emperor Ch'ien Lung, 
but equal esteem was bestowed upon the tiniest 
jade objects, which encouragement to their pro¬ 
duction extends to the collector’s view an in¬ 
viting field in which to exercise a hobby. 
What Is Jade ? 
Jade is the designation given by scientists to 
two distinct minerals. The first of these two is 
nephrite, a silicate of lime and magnesia be¬ 
longing to the hornblende group of minerals. 
The second is jadeite, essentially a silicate 
of sodium and aluminium, belonging to the 
Pyroxene group. One need not go into the 
mineralogical analysis here, as it is suf¬ 
ficient to understand that the jade objects 
are either nephrite or jadeite, and that these 
materials are distinct, one from the other, 
though both come under the head of jade. 
The Chinese likewise include both nephrite 
and jadeite in one class, and to this they 
give the name Yu. But it should be remem¬ 
bered that the Chinese classify jade (Yu) 
under three instead of two headings, al¬ 
though these three divisions are made up of 
either nephrites or jadeites or both. 
To the first Chinese division of jade, a 
division comprising nearly all nephrites, 
Yii is the general name applied. 
To the second Chinese division of jade is 
An unusually fine 
jade ( nephrite ) in¬ 
cense burner of the 
Ch’ien Lung Period, 
with leaf pattern. It 
is from the Bishop 
Collection 
A mong the particu¬ 
lar treasures of the 
Bishop Collection 
which illustrates this 
article is this jade 
incense burner of 
the Ch’ien Lung 
Period 
