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Types of Stones and Their Characteristics

There are some jade and stones that we the kidney.
know very less about them. The natives of Ancient jade objects of various shapes
New Zealand sometimes use these stones were used for ceremonial purposes and
for making figures of human and even many of them have been excavated in
articles like axe-head. These stones had modern times. They have received much
never failed to surprise and delight the attention from scholars and are rarely to
craftsmen and collectors alike. be seen outside museums. The Chinese jade
Jade and other stones that is most likely to be found by the
STONES from comparatively hard jade to collector is seldom older than the
the aptly named soapstone have always eighteenth century. Being a hard stone it
presented a challenge to the craftsman. acquires few signs of wear, and with the
Whenever they were to be found in Chinese habit of copying the designs of
suitable size and shape it was an earlier days it is not easy to determine
invitation to the lapidary to attempt to the age of many specimens. Large pieces
fashion them into works of art. The of undoubted age can be very costly, but
comparison between a rough natural stone small examples of less certain vintage
and the result of careful carving and may be found for no more than a few
polishing never ceases to surprise and pounds apiece.
delight the onlooker. The finest The so-called 'Mogul' jade is usually of
specimens barely indicate the skill and a pale grey-green colour, carved very
patience that contributed to their thinly and often with pierced decoration.
finished form, but a brief study will Some was inlaid with gold and precious
show why the Chinese and others revered stones, which seem to acquire an added
jade and why Europeans attempted to rival fire against the background of the limpid
rock crystal with glass. stone. The Mogul jades were made in
Jade India, but were esteemed sufficiently by
The Oriental mind has woven a wealth of the Chinese for the Imperial workshops to
legend into this stone, which varies in have a department where work in this
colour from pale grey-green and light manner was produced.
lavender to a deep green that is almost The natives to make axe-heads and
black in some lights. Geologists into two ornaments used a green nephrite found in
distinct types divide it: jadeite and New Zealand. Of the latter, the 'Tiki', a
nephrite. The latter is slightly less ferocious-looking distorted human figure,
hard and under a microscope it will be represents the Maori Creator who 'took
seen that 'in cross-section the fibers red clay, and kneaded it with his own
have cleavage cracks intersecting, not at blood'. These pendant talisman are flatly
approximately 90°, as in jadeite, but at rendered, and usually about three inches
120°, and there are numerous other high and one and a half inches wide.
differences . . .' However, few, if any, Specimens some nine inches in height are
collectors attempt to distinguish between known but are very rare when so large,
the two, and describe them both as jade. and collectors should beware of modern
The stone is alleged by the Chinese to copies of them in all sizes.
have been forged from a rainbow in order Pieces of these stones nicely carved and
to make thunderbolts for the God of polished can fetch a high price for
Storms, and it is also the traditional, collectors. The beliefs that some of
although surely unpalatable, food of the these stones possess magical and curative
Taoist genii. By most of the nations of properties made them all the more
antiquity it was regarded as possessing expensive. But their dates are very
magical and curative properties; not only difficult to verify because the Chinese
was it looked on also as a symbol of often copied from the past designs making
virtue, but it was supposed to be of it all the more difficult to identify.
value in the cure of diseases affecting




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