New Listings for the Gallery

We will be adding a number of new items to the gallery starting tomorrow. While we are in the process of finalizing the descriptions and such, Bob wanted to try out a new slide show feed… as a preview of the new listings.

Boys and their techno-toys! Oh well, I hope you like it.

Chinese Carved Amber Bracelet

The fabulous carved amber beast at the center of this bracelet is clearly a power symbol. In China, for many many years, amber has been treasured as a symbol of courage and strength. Amber ornaments have been found in excavations of Imperial tombs.

"When a tiger dies, its soul penetrates the earth and becomes a stone...this object resembles amber and is called Hu Po (tiger's soul)"  Li Shizhan, 16th centruy.

"The tiger is the king of the wild animals...symbol of courage and bravery..." Eberhard

 

The west thinks of amber as something found in Baltic regions...near the sea...but large deposits of amber have been mined in Burma (Union of Myanmar) for thousands of years... amber from Burma is sometimes called 'Burmite'. Burmite was found underground near coal mines and jadeite mines.

A Jesuit priest form Portugal who traveled to China in the early 17th century wrote: "They make beads...like amber...redder than our own amber, but not so clear".

 

I would like to acknowledge the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, British Columbia) for much of this research... if you want to know more, the information is on their website. They have the second largest collection of Chinese amber in North America. You might like to obtain “Soul of the Tiger: Chinese Amber Carvings from the Reif Collection” from them online.

I can't wait to see their collection in person!!

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Open Again…at Last!

 

It started out as a well organized, reasonably simple move back into our home after being gone for 10 months. We thought that we would be off line and away from our normal publishing and listing routine for a couple of weeks…

Well, there is an old saying: “If you want to make the gods laugh, make a plan!” and I am sure that they were rolling on their heavenly floor laughing so hard they cried… perhaps that is why it has been raining here so much!

We have put the gallery back on line and will be adding new things in the weeks to come… as well as continuing our series of posts on Chinese jewelry and beads…

Thank you to everyone for your patience, letters of concern and gentle prods …

Cinnabar Part 2 …Chinese and Japanese

Cinnabar was important in both China and Japan. In fact, in 1609 the Japanese gave control of cinnabar (Kanji) mining to an official sanctioned guild.The material is the same but the techniques that each country uses are different... this has led to a lot of confusion.

I did a lot of online searches and found antique cinnabar boxes exactly the same...one called Chinese and the other Japanese.

The Japanese artist generally carved the wood first and then added a thin coat of lacquer with a second thin coat of another color on top...then some shallow carving. Occasionally deep carved layered lacquer (like the Chinese) does appear in Japan...but I have seen it used in Japanese beads or  jewelry.

This is a good example of the delicate carving of lacquer beads from Japan (some cinnabar) compared to the more dramatic Chinese carving....

These huge rare Japanese cinnabar and glass enamel beads exhibit the same shallow carving, but the blue and white enamel flowers make them stand out...very unusual because these cinnabar beads have a hollow brass base and are quite heavy ...6.5 grams per bead.

Subtle or dramatic, these cinnabar beads have a personality to suit every mood and reflect the wonderful artistry of both cultures.

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos.

Chinese Cinnabar Lacquer Bracelet and Necklace

This huge (2 3/4" high) 19th century cinnabar and black lacquer bracelet has an unusual construction. Its three metal panels are curved, hinged and painted with a thick paint colored with cinnabar. The three black lacquer panels are carved with open work and attached to the metal base, so the red you see in the spaces of the lacquer is actually the paint on the base.

These early 20th century carved lacquer beads use a similar technique... the black lacquer is carved away to expose the red cinnabar underneath.

Cinnabar is a word with many meanings: ...a deep red mineral found near volcanic rock - mercuric sulfide (HgS) ... a brilliant red color ... a type of moth ... a lacquer.

Found in Hunan Province, the Chinese have been using the mineral cinnabar for over 1000 years as a pigment or coloring agent. At one time, it was used: in stage makeup, to color paint and ultimately in the form we see in jewelry... to create a brilliant red lacquer.

Lacquer is  a coating made of cellulose esters, shellac or resins. In the orient, the cinnabar pigment is most often combined with a resin varnish from trees of the cashew family.

The Chinese began carving cinnabar lacquer in approximately the 8th century. To create a cinnabar ornament, one hundred coats of lacquer might be applied to an object... a box or vase or pendant.

It was a painstaking process...  each layer was left to dry 3 days before the next layer could be applied - then carved. 18th century lacquer also has layers of fabric ...between coats of lacquer.

But virtually all objects called 'cinnabar' and made after 1950 are neither cinnabar or lacquer... it is a resin substitute... concerns about the toxicity of the mercury content ended the use of true cinnabar. 

These beads and the moth pendant are examples of the most common red resin ornaments being produced for the last 50 years ... they are very pretty, not cinnabar...not lacquer ... but red resin... still, they are very pretty!

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Chinese Silver Tutti Frutti Style Bracelet

"Tutti Frutti" is an Italian phrase for "all fruits"... it is used to describe a desert or multicolored confection made from chopped fruit. Some of you may remember that Elvis Presley recorded a song with the same name. He even had a 'gal named Sue'...(at least in the song ;) ...

 

Jewelry collectors also use the term 'Tutti Frutti' to describe jewelry that is a confection for the eye... like this bracelet. Three huge links with carved jade surrounded by cabochon cut tourmaline, sapphire, rose quartz, rock crystal and ruby...all set in silver vermeil filigree decorated with flowers...c. 1900-10.

It has many similarities to the ‘Chinese Multi-Gemstone Necklace-Export’ I wrote about in June 2007, that is in the PictureBook section. 

Tutti Frutti ornaments have been made by many 20th century designers... but the style is attributed to Cartier (they have even trade marked the name). Their website says that after a trip to the east in 1925, Cartier was inspired by the carved colored stones he saw there and began to "transform semiprecious stones into stunning multicolored compositions."

Cartier took the style even further using rare precious stones... in November 2008, a Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet sold in Geneva for $190,000 US... but the auction record for a "superb Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet" was set in 2005 when one sold for over a million dollars.

If jewelry is the food for a woman's soul... this is definitely the desert course! 

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Guest Contributor CC... Distinguishing Antique Jades

Our guest contributor CC, is back again with a very insightful post on Distinguishing Antique Jades.

The jade collectors often say that they distinguish antique jades from modern or counterfeit ones by examining a piece in 4 aspects…

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Beads Beads Beads

I sometimes say to customers: "The first primitive woman looked at the ground and saw a pretty stone and picked it up and figured out a way to hang it on on her neck...the earliest man bent over and picked up a big rock and found away to make a tool out of it..."

[ A string of early 20th century hand carved carnelian beads ]

Next they must have gotten together and made a bead!

Because, Wikipedia defines a bead as "a small decorative object that is pierced for threading" and then adds... "a pair of beads...approximately 100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest example of jewelry."

[ Hand carved jade beads from a Mandarin Court necklace ]

I think their definition is so brief because no one wants to try and summarize a subject (beads) that has been commercially and spiritually entwined with human culture for tens and tens thousands of years...

[ 19th century hollow carved bone beads from a Mandarin Court necklace ]

But as I write this, the other part of my brain has been thinking about those 100,000 year old beads ...Darn, in my next lifetime I will have to study archeology and anthropology.

Guest Post - More on Calder and Torques

When I commented in my December 23, 08 post on Chinese Ethnic Silver Necklaces… “it reminds me of the jewelry made by Alexander Calder towards the end of his career...” it prompted one of our readers, Elizabeth Herridge, to send us along this insightful contribution … I thought it would be great to share it with you!

Alexander Calder ( American, 1898-1976) was living and working in Paris beginning in 1926, just one year after the famous …

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Chinese Repoussé Bracelet

This 19th century bracelet is an interesting example of Chinese repoussé and chasing techniques  with great attention to detail and quality of construction.

 

It is also an intriguing collage of Chinese culture.. a story told with architecture instead of traditional symbols... through distinct elements on the bracelet… walls, towers and dwellings on stilts.

My first impression was…this was a depiction of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City… major symbols of Chinese culture and history… but how did they relate to what appears to be a fishing village?

After looking through all of my library and surfing the web, a reference to Chinese City Walls in Wikipedia  took me to another reference to ‘Fishing Town’… one of the three ancient battlefields in China… Could it be that the artist who created this piece was drawing together the symbols of the ancient walled cites and paying tribute to a city that withstood over 200 attacks during a 36 year period?

Maybe…or maybe not. I am sure someone will write me with more ideas.

But once again, I have confirmed why I love collecting Chinese ornaments. The more I researched these images and spent time on this ‘journey’… The more I began to feel that I had been on a trip to China hundreds of years ago... The more I began to think of this bracelet as a souvenir of that journey…