National treasures

In the Chines Arts and Crafts museum in Beijing, there are four national treasures of jade carvings. These art pieces were carved between 1985 and 1986 using 4 jade boulders that were kept in the store house since 17th century during the reign of Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty. There is a bit of history as to why 4 jade boulders from the 17th century which were only being carved into carvings of national treasures in the 80s.

Taishan

A screen

 

Incense container

Basket of flowers







There was a jade carftmaster from a  National Jade Factory in Beijing who had heard of the story of 4 jade boulders which were originally kept in the palace during the 17th century but were lost due to the collapse of the empire. The 4 boulders were originally cut from a huge jade boulder (803kg) discovered by a jade trader during the 17th century. As the jade boulder was of exceptional quality, the trader reported this finding to the local official. The local official then gave the boulder to Qianlong emperor as a tribute. As Qianlong did not know what to do with it, he kept it in the royal storehouse. Only during the 19th century, the boulder was cut into 6 pieces, 2 were used to make into utensils for empress dowager (Empress Cixi) as her birthday gifts, the remaining 4 were then kept in the storehouse. These 4 boulders were eventually lost due to the collapse of the Qing empire.

During a meeting with some local officials, the craftmaster mentioned about the 4 jade boulders and he would like to know their whereabout. Next day, a local press published an article on the story of the boulders and an enquiry of their whereabout. The minister in-charged of arts & crafts then rushed to the jade factory and informed the craftmaster that these jade boulders were indeed recovered in 1950 and were kept in the national storehouse since then.

 

Article in search of the boulders

The craftmaster

The management of the jade factory then applied to the authority to retrieve the 4 jade boulders to be carved into 4 art pieces which would become the national treasures. When approval was granted, workers from the factory were sent to the storehouse and when they opened 4 thick wooden boxes, they found the 4 boulders from the early Qing dynasty. The boulders were indeed of very high quality in terms of colour, clarity and transparency. The heaviest boulder weighed 363kg while the lightest one weighed over 200kg.

 

Jade boulder #3

Jade boulder #2

A committee was immediately set up to oversee the project (Project 86) to turn 4 jade boulders into national treasures of art. More than 50 experienced artists were called in to work on the project. Over 70 drawings were received as subjects to be carved for theses boulders. Eventually, 4 drawings were selected and the jade boulders were to be carved into a mountain (Taishan), a big screen (from 4 slices cut from a rectangular slab) that depicts dragons, an incense container and a basket of flowers. The artists who were responsible for the design and carving of the boulders were both old and young talented workers with skillful hands. 

After 2 years of hard work, the 4 pieces of art treasures were finally completed. They were really remarkable works of art. These pieces of jade were skillfully craved into their respective subjects to reveal the quality and colour of the jade. This works of art showcase the intelligence, creativity and talent of the masters in arts and crafts. A tradition that will pass from generation to generation.

 

Portion of Taishan with details

The Taishan & its creator

  

Details on Incense container

 

Deatils on Basket of flowers

Working on the boulder

Crazy stones III

The craze for this stone has reached a state that it is many times more valuable than gold and any other precious stones. People in China are willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a piece of carving from this stone, even raw uncut stones can fetch tens of millions. What is this stone?

This is the incredible chicken blood stones that come from Changhua in Zhejiang or Balin in inner Mongolia. Very high quality chicken blood stones are those that are over 90% red. This redness on the stones is like blood from a freshly slaughtered chicken splashed all over the stones. Chinese like the colour of red as it symbolises good fortune, prosperity, luck and auspicious things. These high quality stones are usually cut into rectangular seal stones or carved into beautiful carvings by grand masters in the trade.

Chicken blood seal stones

Raw uncarved stones

Chicken stone carving by master





There are many success stories of how retrenched workers and ordinary folks found great wealth by trading in these stones. There was once a tailor from a poor family who become multi-millionaire after trading in the stones in the 1990s. He is a native of Qintian in Zhejiang (where Qintian stones come from) but he trades mainly in the chicken blood stones from inner Mongolia. The reason is simple, there are a lot of people engaged in stone carving business in Qintian but not in Mongolia. So all the good stones from inner Mongolia have to be delivered here for carving into artistic pieces (the market for these stones is in Qintian, Zhejiang). So in those years, he was exposed to lots and lots of chicken blood stones from Balin of inner Mongolia. The stones were not that costly at first and they were sent daily by truck loads to Qintian.   He was amazed at the beauty of the stones and he liked the redness that spreads across these stones. He knew that Chinese people have always like the auspicious red colour and so the stones could become a darling in the collectors' eyes. He started buying the stones in large quantities and trading them. In the beginning he sold the stones to Taiwanese (as Taiwanese were wealthy people) and reaped huge profit. He also witnessed the fact that the price of high quality stones had been increasing steadily. This was due to excessive mining of the stones over the decades. As resources become scarce, the price would definitely escalate up. Having dealt with the stones for years, he finally fell in love with the chicken blood stones and became a collector himself. He started buying back those stones he sold to his clients earlier in Taiwan. He also paid very high price in the process of collecting back the stones he sold earlier. He even sold his factories to consolidate his funds to collect the stones of the highest quality. He intends to have his own buildings in Qintian to showcase all of his collection.

 

A tailor who makes it big in chicken blood stones

Huge uncut raw stones costing hundreds of millions

Fresh blood splashes on the stone

How did a stone trader eventually become a collector?

He bought a chicken blood stone for 20 thousand dollars and kept in a safe. He moved house later and lost the key to the safe. Two years had passed and he got a welder to cut open the safe and retrieved the stone. His friend saw the beautiful stone and offered him 200 thousand dollars for it. He was amazed that the value of the stone had risen so much in 2 years. He decided not only to keep this stone, but buy any good stones that came by. It was said that there was an offer for the stone at 2 millions. As he grew to like chicken blood stones more and more, he went back to his old clients in Taiwan and offered to buy the stones he sold them earlier. He was even willing to pay a very high price for them, prices much higher than he sold them earlier. He became the number one collector of chicken blood stones.

The stone that turned the man into a collector

Owner turned down an offer for it at 20 millions

 

Carving by grand master, not for sale

Now, artistic carvings done by great master are commanding a very high price, some are even not for sale as the owners like the carvings themselves. If one wants to put a value, it can cost as much as 10 millions or even higher.

 

King of Jadeite

In 2000, a businessman dealing in jadeite, the green jade from Burma, spotted a giant jadeite boulder weighing 4 tons in weight. After closely examining the boulder for traces of the characteristic green jadeite colour, he was sure that this piece of boulder was of superior quality, meaning the interior of the boulder could be mainly jadeite of fine green colour. He bought the boulder and took three years to bring it back to Yunnan where he was based. In the business of boulder gambling in that part of the world, one normally look for the green traces on the surface of uncut jade boulder and make a bid for it, usually at a high price. After acquiring the boulder,  He then ask for the boulder to be cut. 

Green jade revealed

If the interior of the boulder reveals true gem quality (green jadeite colour) jade, he can reap huge profit when the boulder is cut into jade bangles of gem quality. Fine jadeite bangles have been auctioned for over tens of million of dollars.

Otherwise, he stands to lose big in the game if the cut boulder does not reveal any good jadeite in it. So this businessman was very confident that he got the right boulder of good quality. He bought this huge rock and took it home.

The businessman with the jade boulder weighing 4 tons

 

Some part reveals jade below



Jadeite shines under torch light

He and his team of workers then spent 13 months to study the boulder to identify the green patches of jadeite by removing some external layer of rocky stuff. The bits and pieces of green jade that fell of this boulder were later cut into small little gem stones which can fetch 20 to 30 thousands per piece. One could imagine how much this huge jadeite boulder would fetch when the whole boulder is cut into high quality jewelry pieces. He named this boulder Asia One and has not decided what to do with it yet. At a weight of 4 tons, it must the king of all jadeite.

Small jadeite pieces from the boulder costing 30000 dollars

The same businessman earlier paid 12 millions for another jadeite boulder with a business associate. Although he spotted many parts of the boulder to contain the characteristic greenish jadeite colour, after cutting the boulder 3 times, there was no sign of green jadeite in the interior. At that time, he seemed to have lost all he spent on this boulder. It is not uncommon for people to lose millions of dollars in the boulder gambling game. His partner finally left him to shoulder all the losses incurred. He kept the boulder for 2 years and then later he decided to take a final look. He realized that the not every part of the boulder was useless. There were black impurities intertwined with the jadeite portion of the boulder. He could ask someone to remove the impurities and the boulder could still be carved into something valuable.

Jade boulder weighing 41.5 kg costing 12 millions

Jadeite portion revealed using a torch light

He then hired the best master in jadeite carving to work on this boulder. A few years later, a superb jadeite brush holder of fine quality was craved out from this piece of boulder. The emergence of this jadeite piece shocked the collectors' world. It has a price tag of over a hundred millions. It is the work of a skillful jade carving artist who can turn a piece of insignificant boulder into a masterpiece.

Brush holder of fine jadeite quality

The famous green and white cabbage in Taiwan's museum

Apart from the Asia One, this man also possesses the biggest jadeite cabbage in history. A massive piece of jade cabbage weighing 2 tons. It was cut from a raw jade bolder of over 4 tons in weight.

Jade cabbage of 2 tons in weight.
 

Good quality jadeite is judged by its colour, transparency, purity and cracks. Pure, transparent and deep green colour jadeite pieces often command a very high price.

Superb quality jadeite

Making of a bangle

Good quality white jade of reasonable size is often made into jade bangles as the profit is higher. To cut into a jade bangle, it is important that the jade has no defects like cracks and impurities as these blemishes will significantly lower the quality of the bangle produced, and hence its price.

A good quality white jade bangle with traces of the skin

 The jade artist often gambles for a piece of jade boulder with the outer skin intact. He then cuts open the boulder and inspects its quality in terms of colour, texture, density and mutton-fat characteristics. If the boulder turns out to be of exceptional quality, he will reap huge profit from the raw boulder that he has earlier acquired. Otherwise all his investment will go down the drain.





He then marks out the inner and outer diameter of the shape of the bangle and cut the shape.


Cutting the boulder into half

Raw jade boulder

 

 

With the inner circle of the jade material removed, then bit by bit he removes the material to get the shape of the jade bangle. After many rounds of processing, the jade bangle will eventually take its final shape. If the jangle is further processed by a master, its value can increase by another 60%.

 

 

The jade bangle below has a price tag of over 3 million as there are final touches done by a grand master on the bangle. With his signature engraved on the inner side of the bangle, the price will be more than double its original value.

 

 

Crazy stones II - White Jade 和田玉

The Chinese love of white jade 和田玉 has sent the price of white jade to such a high level that it is worth many times more than gold on a per gram basis. This is especially true for white jade of the highest quality, the stone that exhibits a colour and texture that resemble the fat of mutton. This is traditionally called the mutton-fat quality in white jade. It has that characteristic oily yet succulent juice-like sticky texture. It has always been the favourite of all jade types of the Qing emperors. This jade is found in the Xinjiang region of northern China. Good quality white jade is usually made into jade bangles and jade stone carvings. These jade pieces can fetch millions of dollars.

Mutton-fat whit jade

There is a couple in Shanghai who own a jade carving workshop. This couple have been collecting white jades of all types for quite a number of years. Although they possess a large collection of white jades, some of mutton-fat quality, they are still not satisfied with their collection and are still looking for the white jade of the finest mutton-fat quality. In 2007, the couple had a call from an agent in Xinjiang that a native of Xinjiang had a large piece of white jade of exceptional quality for sale. Immediately the couple flew to Xinjiang and went to the native's house to take a look at this huge boulder. As soon as the native unveiled the boulder from the cloth that covered it, the husband's eyes sparkle and uttered some words to praise the jade. The native of Xinjiang knew that the couple got hooked by the exceptional jade boulder, he then asked for an incredible price of eighty million dollars. He even asked the couple to examine it carefully and take 2 days to make a decision. The couple knew that if they delayed any longer to buy the jade boulder, someone might come along and snatch it from them. They knew they had little ground to negotioate, they had to buy the jade boulder for this is the finest white jade that they had ever seen, the ultimate mutton-fat quality. After many rounds of intense negations, they finally bought the jade boulder and brought it back to Shanghai.

 

The white jade boulder with a price tag of 80 millions

Many of his business associates and jade collectors heard the news, they all brought along their finest whit jade pieces just to compare with this ultimate one. Unfortunately this jade boulder out-shined other collectors' in terms of colour, texture and the mutton-fat character.

 

The jade boulder outclassed other jade of similar qualities

Since 2000s, the price of white jade from Xinjiang has been increasing steadily and discriminating mining of the jade along the river banks has created a lot of unpleasant sights. In early days, the natives were digging the jade with simple tools. Nowadays, bull dozers were sent in to dig this precious stone in a very scale.


The couple with their jade boulder

 

Heavy equipment to dig for the stones

Early days jade-mining

The raw jade boulders that come from the river banks are usually dense and come with a certain brown skin, the result of many years of washing by the river and the interaction with chemicals and environment. This jade boulders with the characteristic brown skin are highly sough after by collectors and traders. In Xinjiang, jade traders are seen everywhere, the rich will have their own shops and the not so rich will display their stocks on road sides.

 





Another smaller boulder auctioned for 8.8 millions in 2012

A native from Xinjiang with his precious boulder

 

Jade carving 1

 

Jade carving 2

White jade bangle over 600000 dollars