“Jade: a Stone of Ancient Empires, a Resplendent Art Deco Jewel”

Mysterious and translucent, rare and beautiful, jade –also known as nephrite or jadeite - is a precious stone long admired and with legendary attributes in different areas of the world. Jade has a central place in China’s ancient civilisation where it is regarded as the Stone of Heaven, conferring immortality on the owner. As the Chinese Empire declined and fell, the allure of Chinese jade attracted the attention of discerning Western collectors. During the golden age of Art Deco, when works of art from East Asia were fashionable in the West, fine Chinese jade works of art were reinterpreted by the most prestigious jewellers of Paris and New York.

The study day will look mainly at jade from the empires of China, Mughal India and Tsarist Russia whilst touching on the Holy Roman Empire and Louis XIV of France before moving on to jewellery brands such as Cartier and Tiffany which incorporated jade and jadeite into their early 20th Century jewels, vanity cases and chinoiserie clocks.

Lecture 1. Will look at jade in China, where the stone has been revered for thousands of years and is linked with concepts of immortality and mountain lore. Nephrite jade was sourced for centuries from Silk Road regions but by the 18th Century mines in Myanmar supplied jadeite in radiant shades of apple green or lavender. Skilled artisans created beautiful and sophisticated jade carvings for generations of Chinese Emperors, many of whom were avid collectors. There will be a quick mention of jade in South America too.

Lecture 2. considers jade vessels and jewels made for the Mughal Emperors in India as well as those made for their ancestors in Central Asia. Mughal jades were often, embellished with rubies, emeralds and diamonds set in gold. We will also look at rare jade vessels made in workshops in Italy and Prague during the Renaissance. By the 19th Century, in Tsarist Russia, deposits of nephrite jade had been discovered in Siberia and were used by Peter Carl Fabergé for jewelled photograph frames and desk accessories. One of the finest Fabergé eggs, the Pansy Egg, is made of jade.

Lecture 3. moves to the 19th and 20th Centuries and a passion for jade among Western collectors such as Queen Mary who loved Chinese jade and Richard Wallace who acquired superb Mughal dagger hilts made of jade. By the 1920s, empires had fallen and the Art Deco era had dawned. Eminent jewellers such as Cartier and Tiffany acquired historic jade from dealers in Beijing and Shanghai, using them as unique components for jewellery, vanity cases and, most magnificent of all, Cartier's ‘mystery’ clocks. Society portraits show fashionably dressed women wearing Chinese jade jewellery similar to Barbara Hutton's famous Cartier necklace. This magnificent jewel combined flawless Chinese jadeite beads with a ruby and diamond clasp and was displayed recently in the V&A’s acclaimed exhibition ‘Cartier’.

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Host or Publisher Shahida Osman