Description

China Qing Period (ca. 17th century) vintage & antique hand carved Imperial White Khotan Nephrite Dragon.

This White Khotan Nephrite Dragon jade shows ‘blood veins’ due to ‘iron’ deposits in the soil. Which makes it amazing and rare!

Measures 12 x 9 x 3,5 cm.

Comes from a private collection and with documentation + invoice from the US Auction House (Gallery).

INFORMATION ON JADE AND NEPHRITE

Jade is an ornamental rock. The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:

• Jadeite
• Nephrite

Nephrite and jadeite were used from prehistoric periods for hardstone carving. Jadeite has about the same hardness as quartz. Nephrite is slightly softer, but is tougher (more resistant to breakage) than jadeite. It was not until the 19th century that a French mineralogist, Alexis Damour, determined that “jade” was in fact two different minerals. Nephrite can be found in a creamy white form (known in China as “mutton fat” jade). As well as in a variety of green colours, whereas jadeite shows more colour variations, including blue, lavender-mauve, pink, and emerald-green colours.

From the earliest Chinese dynasties to the present, the jade deposits most in use were not only those of Khotan in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang but other parts of China as well, such as Lantian, Shaanxi. There, white and greenish nephrite jade is found in small quarries and as pebbles and boulders in the rivers flowing from the Kuen-Lun mountain range eastward into the Taklamakan desert area. The river jade collection is concentrated in the Yarkand, the White Jades (Yurungkash) and Black Jade (Karakash) Rivers. From the Kingdom of Khotan, on the southern leg of the Silk Road, yearly tribute payments consisting of the most precious white jade were made to the Chinese Imperial court and there worked into objets d’art by skilled artisans as jade had a status-value exceeding that of gold or silver.

INFORMATION ON QING DYNASTY

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China .

The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in contemporary Northeastern China. The Aisin Gioro leader, Nurhachi, who was originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, began unifying the Jurchen clans in the late sixteenth century. By 1635, Nurhachi’s son Hong Taiji could claim they constituted a single and united Manchu people and began forcing the Ming out of Liaoning in southern Manchuria. Complete pacification of China was accomplished around 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor.

Over the course of its reign, the Qing became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The imperial examinations continued and Han civil servants administered the empire alongside Manchu ones. The Qing reached its height under the Qianlong Emperor in the eighteenth century, expanding beyond China’s prior and later boundaries. Imperial corruption exemplified by the minister Heshen and a series of rebellions, natural disasters, and defeats in wars against European powers gravely weakened the Qing during the nineteenth century.