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.

From Pig to Dragon – Neolithic Hongshan Jades

One of the most intriguing Chinese Neolithic jade culture is that of the so called Hongshan period (≈3500 to ≈2000BC) considered by many as the source from which the later jade cultures of the Liangzhu period and of the Yellow River Dynasties took many of their inspirations.

The Hongshan Culture itself is the successor of much older Neolithic Cultures such as the Xinglongwa (≈ 5000BC), Zhaobaogou (≈4500BC) and Chahai (≈4000BC)  ones which blossomed in what is now the Liaoning Province of the North East China and the eastern areas of Inner Mongolia.

The Hongshan Culture area (in yellow) in North Eastern China

Some of the Hongshan Culture area is now occupied by desert but studies have shown that it was previously flourishing grassland with a spare forest cover.

First Hongshan jade surface finds occurred in the early 70's and mainly by chance. More systematic archeological excavations were carried out between 1983 and 1985 at the Mangniu River site near Niuheliang in the Liaoning Province and revealed an extensive temple site with sophisticated earth walled structures with plaster facing showing pigs and dogs and many shallow and deep tombs.

In this temple area fragments of sculptures of the emblematic pig dragons, in low fired clay, where found.

Excavations of still older Xinglongwa urban sites revealed that people were buried in tombs located inside domestic houses and that entire pigs where interred with the remains of the deceased indicating the particular status this animal had then and the local successor cultures.

Jade seems to have had a particular role and position in the Hongshan Cultures as it is the principal and often the sole type of burial good. All the types of jades appear to have been of decorative nature either being worn directly on the body or sewed onto cloths or attached to wooden utensils.

Essentially no jade artifacts were found in excavations of houses indicating the important symbolic value of them. The jades found have a variable surface finish. Some of the seem to have been hastily shaped and worked, just for the burial, whereas others are highly polished and show traces of wear indicating that many generations have worn them before they were laid into the grave of either the last owner or of a particular important member of the family or tribe.

The most prominent and emblematic Hongshan Jade objects are the “Zhulong” or “pig dragon” and its large derivate, the so called “Crested pig dragon” or “Large C dragon” of the Sanxingtala site. The association with a pig, known to be revered in the Honghsan Culture, is given by the flat ended snout, big round eyes and flat ears.

The Zhulong jade dragon found its way also into the later Liangzhu Culture of the lower Jiangtse Delta area and was also reproduced as late as in Shang Dynasty times.

Scholars of Chinese Culture consider this Hongshan symbol of a pig as the origin of later representation of the Chinese Dragon.

Other typical Hongshan Jade artifacts are represented by birds with spread wings, cicadas and similar insects and open work flat pendants of rectangular or square profile whose retained surfaces are scoped out as broad and smoothed groves.

Other Hongshan specific jade artifacts are small seated statuettes of horned shamans or goods as also that of women not unlikely to similar ones found in European Neolithic sites.

Many of the objects are made in the typical Hongshan yellowish green jade with a smooth and very subtle surface structure either made deliberately or caused by a long period of wearing. The reproduction of the animals show an extraordinary command of the material and the techniques of carving. The Liaoning Province is rich in multicolored mephrite jade.

A typical feature of Hongshan jades are the distinctive way holes where made. This hole type is described as the ox-nose hole. It has twin tear drop shaped orifices leading diagonally onto each other with reducing depth bore and is not encountered in other Neolithic jades.

During one of my recent trips to China, I have found a book of the series “China Ancient Jade Collection” published in August 2005 (ISBN 7-80158-626-3) and which carried extensive pictorial material on Hongshan jades artifacts as assembled by a private collector, a Mr. Xu Qiang of Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Mr. Xu is a director of the Liaoning Film Studio and got interested in ancient jades by his grandfather.

He seems to be quite active in the Hongshan jade scene and is preparing two further books on Hongshan jade appraisal and interpretation. As many of his Hongshan jades have been collected outside controlled archeological digs and sources, it cannot be excluded that the one or other object in his collection is of possible later reproduction.

I have scanned the relevant pictures and enclose them for your enjoyment. For further reading on the subject I can recommend you the relevant Hongshan jade section in “Jades from China” by A. Forsyth and B. McElney of the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath, UK, 1994 and “Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing” by J.Rawson, The British Museum Press 1995.

The pictures are grouped in themes so to allow you to compare the stylistc elements recurring in each group. Note the predominance of the raised globolar eyes and how these Neolithic artists have been able to aptly underscore, with few ridges and grooves, the essence of the shape of an animal.

THE HONGSHAN JADE COLLECTION BOOK by XU Qiang

INSECTS, GRUBS and CICADAS (3 to 15cm in size)

PIG, RABBIT, CAT and TORTOISES

BIRDS, FALCONS and OWLS (5 to 25cm in size)

ZHULONG's and CRESTED PIG DRAGONS  (3 to 30cm in size)

CLOUD PENDANTS  (5 to 30cm in size)

HORNED GOODS and WOMEN STATUETTES  (6 to 18cm in size)

MASK PENDANTS  (4 to 8cm in size)

OTHER HONGSHAN JADE ARTIFACTS

Russia, Old and New - Siberian jade objects

Russia has vast resources of brilliant green and immaculate white Nephrite jade and its artist have been busy transforming it into beautiful objects of art.

The best known sources of such objects of art in Russian nephrite jade are the workshops of Carl Fabergé in St.Petersburg, Cartier in Paris and Dennisow-Uralski, the supplier of raw and finished hardstone objects from Siberia.

Peter Carl Fabergé (May 30, 1846–September 24, 1920) was a Russian jeweler, best known for the famous Fabergé eggs, made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and gemstones rather than more mundane materials.

He was born in St. Petersburg to the jeweler Gustav Fabergé and his Danish wife Charlotte Jungstedt. Gustav Fabergé’s father’s family were Huguenots, originally from La Bouteille, Picardie, who fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, initially to Germany near Berlin, then in 1800 to the Baltic province of Livonia, then part of Russia.

Young Fabergé began his education at St. Anne's Gymnasium, the German school in St. Petersburg. In 1860, the family moved again, to Dresden, and shortly thereafter, the teenage Carl went on a study trip, learning the jeweler’s craft at the House of Friedman in Frankfurt. In 1864, he returned to St. Petersburg and joined his father’s business, taking over its management in 1872.

Carl and his younger brother Agaton were a sensation at the Pan-Russian Exhibition held in Moscow in 1882. Three years later, Tsar Alexander III appointed him an official Court Supplier, as a reward for making him a splendid Easter egg to give to his wife. Thereafter, Fabergé made an egg each year for the Tsar to give to the Tsaritsa Maria. The next tsar, Nicholas II, ordered two eggs each year, one for his mother and one for his own wife, Alexandra, a practice which continued from 1885 to 1917.

He became the Tsar’s Court Goldsmith in 1885. The Imperial Easter eggs were a sideline; Fabergé made many more objects ranging from silver tableware to fine jewelry. Fabergé’s company became the largest jewelry manufacturer in Russia, with 500 employees and branches in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev and London. It produced some 150,000 objects between 1882 and 1917. He left Russia during the Revolution in 1917 and died 1920 in Cannes, France.

A very good review of Fabergé and Cartier objetcs of art in jade is available in the 2003-2004 exposition catalogue : Fabergé-Cartier - rivals at the court of the Tsar , published by Hirmer in Munich/Germany.

One of the most famous objects in jade from the Faberge workshops is the Easter egg which the Russian gold mine tycoon Alexander Ferdinadowitsch Kelch had offered to his wife Barbara on Easter 1901. It was made under the supervision of one of Faberge’s jade specialists, Michael Perchin.

Fabergé Nephrite Easter Egg – Two hollow egg halves in Siberian green jade about 14cm long with four feet in red gold in the shape of apple tree branches. The petals of the white apple flowers are in enamel with their center formed by diamonds on a pink background. (Collection A.P.Goop, Lichtenstein)

Fabergé Eternal Calendar – A cube in green nephrite about 10cm high showing the month, day of the month and day of the week with golden knobs and diamond decoration. Late work of the Fabergé workshops and now in the New Orleans Museum of Arts.

Fabergé Quadratic Nephrite Box – Very simple box 9.7cm square with cover decorated with a diamond studded monogram “EK” and with an inscription 23 juillet, 5 août 1902. The box was made for Count Kinsky, Ambassador of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in St. Petersburg (New Orleans Museum of Arts).

Fabergé Jade Kosch – An oval, boat shaped, 25cm long ceremonial drinking cup with golden handle with diamonds and a “NII” monogram. This was a gift of the tsar Nicolas II to Ambassador Boutiron, the French ambassador to Russia in 1906(Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris).

Fabergé Jade Cigarette Case – A 8.3cm long box with white enamel decoration, chiseled laurel leaves and 8 ruby cabochons. Made by Henrik Wigström, the other jade specialist of Fabergé (Collection John Traina, San Francisco).

Fabergé Jade Box – A 8.4cm long box with gold frames and two closures with two sapphire cabochons. The box was purchased on December 1911 by Countess Hatzfeld, born Claire Huntington, at the Fabergé’s subsidiary in London (A la Vieille Russie New York) .

Fabergé Tsar Puska Cannon – A copy of the famous 5.3m long cannon of the tsar in green nephrite with gold decoration. This was a gift of Tsar Nicolas II to his nephew, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany (Collection Stichting Huis Doorn).

Fabergé Desk Set in Louis XVI Style – An eleven piece set of office desk objects in green jade with gold and gilded gold decoration comprising stand clock, ink vessel, stamp container, bell, ink blotter, pen holder, pen, pencil, table clock, glue pot and two candle holders. Objects made in the Wigström workshop (Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza).

After a long pause, such beautiful jade objects are once more made in Russia. If you look carefully during televised interviews, you can see such jade objects, not unlikely the Fabergé desk set, also on the desk of the actual tsar in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin.

A small company, located in Obninks, a high technology town about 150Km south-west of Moskva has revived the making of similar objects, minus their diamond and gold decoration, in a vivid green Siberian (Sayan) nephrite. Next to green jade also selected articles are made in black and white Eastern Siberian jade. Views of the object made and contact details can be found under www.nephrite.ru and the English version of the homepage.

Black Siberian jade set

White Vitim jade set