Gorgeous ancient chinese Jade -::- Ritual grain server

       China, early Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 1045 BCE Bronze Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer F1968.29 Richly decorated containers were used in ritual banquets to honor ancestors. This gui, cast with an inscription acknowledging the Taibao's role in suppressing a rebellion that threatened the very existence of the royal house, would have been a family treasure for generations. Based on events chronicled in the inscription inside the container, this is one of the earliest dateable bronzes from the Zhou dynasty. The translated inscription reads: The king attacked Luzi Sheng and suppressed his rebellion. The king sent...

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Posted in: chinese jade,chinese sculpture,chinese statue,jade china,jade in chinese

£18million-worth of ancient Chinese artifacts has stolen

The mob got away with 18 precious pieces including six from the Ming Dynasty, mainly in jade. The robbery at Cambridge’s famous Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the city’s university, came less than two weeks after jade artefacts valued at £1.8million were nicked from Durham University’s museum. It is feared organised crime syndicates are targeting Chinese art collections in the UK to sell to rich foreign buyers on the black market. Art crime rakes in £3.7billion a year, making it the world’s third highest grossing illegal enterprise behind only drug and arms trafficking. And booming China’s art market has become the globe’s biggest. Expert Dick...

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Posted in: jade stolen

The myth of jade

Jade – a gemstone of unique symbolic energy, and unique in the myths that surround it. With its beauty and wide-ranging expressiveness, jade has held a special attraction for mankind for thousands of years.This gem, with its discreet yet rather greasy lustre, which comes in many fine nuances of green, but also in shades of white, grey, black, yellow, and orange and in delicate violet tones, has been known to Man for some 7000 years. In prehistoric times, however, it was esteemed rather more for its toughness, which made it an ideal material for weapons and tools. Yet as early as 3000 B.C. jade was known in China as yu, the 'royal gem'. In the...

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