Nephrite and Jadeite • Translated from the German original of 1875
Heinrich Fischer | Edited/Translated by Richard W. Hughes | 2025
In 1875, Leopold Heinrich Fischer (b. 1817; d. 1886) published an extraordinary work on jade, Nephrit und Jadeit, by far the most comprehensive ever to appear. Fischer examined jade not just from China, but from around the world. His book was the first ever to appear in a Western language entirely devoted to jade as we know it today. As you thumb through the pages that follow, the depth of Fischer’s work will amaze. There is an astonishing amount of detail here. That this could be the product of a single author is simply beyond belief. Fischer goes on and on, as he tracks virtually every Western (and some Oriental) source. One senses an obsession, days in cold museums and libraries examining dusty texts, sleepless nights poring over a candle-lit desk scratching out sentences with a quill, condensing this enormous body of human history into a book of just a few hundred pages. It is truly astounding and a book that will delight those who open its pages. This English translation includes a special 43-page appendix containing full bibliographic details of all the references cited by Fischer, as well as additional references on jade in both Western languages and Chinese, making it a valuable resource for scholars.