From Pig to Dragon and to the Collector - Appraising Neolithic Hongshan Jades

In a previous contribution, I have reported on a book on Hongshan Neolithic Jades of the collection of Mr. Xu Qiang. This collector has published also a book (ISBN 978-7-80142-865-3/Z.436 – 08.2007 – Hua Yi Publishing House, PRC) in which he explains the fine details of evaluating Hongshan Jades.

In this book Mr Xu also makes reference to the apparent paradox of less than 300 Hongshan jades in official collections and the many more held by him and other private collectors. He explains that, in view of the number of Hongshan grave sites and the average number of jades found therein when tombs were still in pristine conditions, a much larger number of authentic Neolithic Hongshan jades is not impossible.

In the appraisal of the jades he looks for several features which he explains and depicts in detail. His explanations are translated into English, alas with poor quality and which allows not always to fully grasp the fine details which are probably revealed in the Chinese part of the text.

Mr. Xu has added also a section on fake Hongshan jades and their methods of fabrication.

This book should be helpful to all of those which deal with the difficult task or evaluating Hongshan jades.

Comments

[Fred Ward]

Thanks again Herbert. Your contributions and observations are insightful, priceless and always welcome. Pricing and/or dating ancient materials are thankless tasks. I hope that one day soon we will have resources to accurately know much more about these wonderful objects. For now let's enjoy what we do know about them and keep trying to uncover more information.
Fred Ward
Friends of Jade