5500 pages of jades – The 15 volumes of the “The complete collection of jades unearthed in China”

The Science Press of Beijing and the Beijing Institute of Jade Culture have published in 2005 a monumental collection of 15 volumes with about 370 pages each on archeologically well traceable jades found in China.

I noticed the volumes recently in Hangzhou and have quickly taken some pictures of the volumes on the fly and want to alert you on their availability.

The 15 volumes present jades in function of their place of finding going from volume 1 covering finds in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei all the way to volume 15 showing jades found in the Chinese Far West or in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. It is logical that the promises of the title “the complete collection…” is not fulfilled otherwise at least 100 times more volumes would be needed!

Each jade item, shown in color pictures, has a short description in English indicating also the museum or institution caring for it now.

In each volume also a summary of the jade finds of the particular province and their dynastic background is presented. This text has been reviewed by the well known US jade expert Mrs. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson and has thus gained much in content and editorial clarity.

The entire set costs 4980 RMB or approximately 730 US$.

Comments

[Eric Hoffman]

Thanks, Herbert, for your helpful mini-review. I've had this set for some time now and am slowly working my way through it.

[Brian]

wow. those books must be amazing! is there a picture a page?

Thanks herbet