jade, jadeite, fei cui, Burma, gems

Walker and Davies compile geographical, political, ethnographic, and administrative information on the Kachin peoples and territories of northern Upper Burma for the use of British officials. The gazetteer describes the distribution of Kachin communities, their tribal and clan organization, chiefs and systems of authority, villages, customs, religion, warfare, agriculture, trade, routes, and relations with neighboring peoples. It also records the physical geography of the mountainous frontier region, communications and principal settlements, and the natural and economic resources encountered there. Of particular relevance to gemological history is the work’s coverage of the northern Burmese districts and trade routes associated with the jade-producing country and commerce with China. As a proof edition compiled by the Intelligence Office shortly after the British annexation of Upper Burma, it provides an early administrative account of a region then being systematically surveyed and brought under colonial control.

gems, jade, nephrite, China, amphibole jade

This Jade Picture" album was painted by Li Chengyuan in the Qing Dynasty. The album contains a total of twelve painted color pictures, which record and depict the main steps of traditional jade making: pounding sand, grinding pulp, opening jade, tying, punching, grinding, digging the hall, on the flower, drilling, piercing flowers, eye-catching, wood, and leather jade. Each picture is accompanied by a text description, and a map of jade mining in Xinjiang is attached to the back of the book. This is the preface picture book of the 17th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty. This album not only depicts the scene of the jade maker's labor operation, but also indicates the names of important tools one by one. It is divided into thirteen processes, of which the "sand pounding diagram" and "pulping diagram" are combined into one picture, and the eleven processes from three to thirteen are one each, with a total of twelve paintings. In the middle of each picture is the main screen, and there are three vertical columns on the left and right sides, and the first line is the process number and process name. The description of the back calligraphy. Li Chengyuan, a painter in the Qing Dynasty, was born and died in unknown age. Li Chengyuan had a close relationship with Stephen Wootton Bushell, a famous scholar who was active in China in the late Qing Dynasty, a British doctor and orientalist. "Yu Zuotu Theo" was made at the request of Bu Shili."

gems, jade, fei cui, pyroxene jade, jadeite, fei cui, omphacite, kosmochlor, fei cui hardness, jade mining in Burma

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Steinhauer provides a visitor’s handbook to the collections of the Royal Ethnographic Museum in Copenhagen, arranged geographically and ethnographically to guide visitors through objects illustrating the material cultures of peoples around the world. The catalogue includes implements, weapons, ornaments, clothing, religious objects, and objects fashioned from stone and other materials.

gems, India, ornamental stones, lapis lazuli, agate, chalcedony, jade, nephrite

Sinkankas: Written upon request of Professor Edward Hull (1829–1917), who wanted information for his forthcoming book on such stones; however, the latter was published in 1872 (which see) without Ball’s contribution. General remarks on stone uses, structures, properties, durability, industry, etc., with specifics on deposits of granites, gneisses, basalt, serpentine, steatite, marble, gypsum, alabaster, limestone, sandstone, quartzite, laterite, slates and ornamental stones (pp. 109–110), the last mentioning the Taj Mahal at Agra and its famous stone inlays of lapis, chalcedonies, marbles, slate, and nephrite.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

An early catalogue of the prehistoric collection of the National Museum in Zagreb by the Croatian historian and archaeologist Šime Ljubić. Prepared in connection with the 1876 International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology in Budapest, the work systematically records prehistoric artifacts held by the museum, including stone, metal and other archaeological objects, and is accompanied by four plates. It represents one of the earliest attempts to catalogue and organize Croatia’s prehistoric archaeological collections and is important for the history of archaeology and museum practice in the region.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Bulhões presents the definitive engineering studies for extending the Bahia–São Francisco railway from Alagoinhas toward Juazeiro and Casa Nova, describing the proposed route, topography, rivers, terrain, settlements, engineering difficulties, and natural resources encountered across the interior of Bahia. Prepared principally as a technical report for railway construction, the work includes geographical and geological observations made during surveys of regions that were still imperfectly documented. Its relevance to mineralogical and gemological research lies in observations on the rocks, minerals, and potentially exploitable resources encountered along the proposed railway corridor, providing contemporary evidence for nineteenth-century knowledge of the mineral-producing districts of Bahia.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Issel announces the discovery of a human skeleton in a cave near Finale, Liguria, a region already noted for important prehistoric remains. The brief newspaper notice reports the find in the context of contemporary investigations into the antiquity of humans and the prehistoric occupation of the Ligurian caves. The discovery contributed to nineteenth-century archaeological and anthropological interest in the Finale cave sites, where human remains, stone implements, ornaments, and other evidence of prehistoric habitation and burial were being brought to scientific attention.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Walker presents the annual report of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India for 1865–66, summarizing surveying operations, geographical observations, mapping, and exploration undertaken in and beyond British India. Of particular importance is Appendix A, containing an account by W.H. Johnson of his journey across the Karakoram to Khotan in Chinese Turkestan. Johnson describes the difficult routes, high passes, geography, settlements, and conditions encountered and records information on Khotan and its surrounding region. His observations are particularly significant for the history of jade, since Khotan was the principal historic source of nephrite supplied to China, obtained from the rivers and mountain districts around Khotan and Yarkand. The report provides an early firsthand European account of a region that remained extremely difficult for Western travelers to access during the nineteenth century.