Superb red jade sculpture on green jade base

390.00 €

Representing a monkey and its cub in a pine forest.
early twentieth century.
Height: 16 cm on 21.5 cm base

Quantity :
Jadeite and nephrite are two minerals designated before 1863 under the sole name of jade, a term still used in gemology. These minerals, appreciated for their remarkable hardness and density, have been used in the manufacture of tools and common, cult and ritual objects since prehistoric times.
Jadeite is rarer than nephrite and there are only a dozen places of extraction in the world, especially in Myanmar and Guatemala, while deposits of nephrite are numerous and spread over all continents.

In Asia and more particularly in China, jade has been considered the symbol of wisdom, courage and purity since the Neolithic era. It is used in sacred rituals, mainly to accompany the deceased to the afterlife. It becomes an imperial stone under the Han Dynasty.
However at this time, and until the 18th century, only nephritis was known and worked on in China. Most of the Chinese jades currently on the market therefore come from nephrite veins located in the regions of Xinjiang and Shaanxi.

The most famous color of jade is green, light to dark, but it can be adorned with all shades, from white to black, and be translucent or opaque, depending on its purity.
Emerald green, mauve, or blue jadeite items called Imperial Jade are rarer and can fetch very high prices during auctions. It is important to ask for an expertise for jade figurines or jewelry in order to avoid acquiring imitations made of antigorite, a variety of serpentine.
Asian antiques specialists rely on the study of the evolution of the style of Chinese jades to determine the time of manufacture. The estimate of an Asian jade also takes into account its purity and its color, but also the skill of the craftsman to bring out the beauty of the veins or the imperfections of the stone.
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