Carefully curated pieces of jade art

 

 

I hope the title of this post doesn't sound too grand for my little jade discards. I couldn't resist using  the catchy title  even at the risk of sounding pretentious.



Carefully curated



 

Each piece measuring approximately 1.5cm to 2.3cm is  hand carved from paper thin jade. Imagine the work!

Do these curious charms or amulets  some damaged and faded merit such praise? Is it art? Is it craft or is it junk? Reader and collector, I leave it to your individual discernment and taste to judge. As for me I rate them as crafty art, these neato pieces of finely carved jade depicting bamboo, flower, plant, butterfly etc.


 

Hand carved from paper thin jade

 

There is a history of more than 100 years behind these delicate but durable carvings. The artisans  worked laboriously to turn them into all things natural and auspicious,  such as plants, weeds, butterflies, bees, flowers and what have you. These in turn are assembled into artistic hairpins and other ornaments. Through the passage of time, people no longer use old fashioned hairpins and ornaments, their   live styles and hairstyles evolving towards modern jewelery and trendy accessories.  As they fall into disuse the jade pieces become detached from their gold and silver mountings. The metals are melted down and sold or recycled but jade which is indestructible are cast aside  to be rediscovered by bargain hunters at flea marts, yard sales and junk stores. Hah ! Now I really feel like a curator, narrating the life story of these charms.

 





life story of jade charms



I have mounted them onto red templates  arranged over a black background. I must confess that I  got the idea of such a compilation from  a photo I espied on ebay. So thank you  my ebay compatriot. I sure hope your picture sold well. And hope you pardon this copy-cat-collector borrowing your design. As the cliché goes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :)

Jade on red templates over a black background



It was finally made into a framed picture and the treasured pieces now decorates part of my wall space.

 

 

Jade charms decorate my wall



 



 

I love collecting .....

......jade hairpins and hair accessories, from a bygone era. My collection is mostly made  from jade, carnelian or silver and date from the Qing dynasty to early 20th Century. Hairpins are essentially objects of feminine beauty to decorate ladies hair. They have evolved  into tender gifts of love  from milady to hero as featured in many a lovers tale in Chinese novels and dramas. Adam Cheng's wistful ballad Purple Jade Hairpin also celebrates the romance of the hairpin.

Vintage and antique hairpins of jade carnelian and silver



 Not all the hairpins in my collection are in their original condition, some have been reworked with missing parts filled in, others are the remains of assemblages namely the jade, carnelian, coral or agate while the gold and silver content have been melted down for money.

The jade and carnelian carvings below are examples of  items disassembled from a large assemblage.

Remains of hairpins



Bottom most piece of a fish had been reworked by me into a dangle.

Hair pin shaped as a sword at one end and a fish at the other.



Hairsticks are the most basic design of hairpins and usually consist of a simple gilt or silver stick topped with a  jade charm. The five sticks shown below are examples.

Hairsticks with small jade charm tops



Many of these jade tops  get detached from the original sticks as the silver and gold content of the sticks can be melted down and converted into money. The remaining jade tops are  then recycled as jade charms, pendants, or amulets.

Small jade charms recycled from hairsticks



Lotus because of its association with purity and spirituality was a favorite design for milady's hairpin. Picture below shows one intact jade stick with a lotus and five other pieces of lotus sans the sticks

Lotus jade stick with remains of five other carved lotus

 Other jade carvings used in hair accessories can range from design of flowers, birds, hands, butterflies, flower basket etc. Below are some examples



butterflies and flowers



 lotus



Bird

Beautiful hands to emphasise beautiful hair

Besides jade, carnelian was also a favourite medium for hair pin carvings.

Carnelian florets

Some of the examples shown above are often described as buttons but I suspect they may  have served multi purposes, as components in a large or complicated hairpin, as a gentlemen's pin and brooches for example.

There are also hairpins carved from a single piece of jade or carnelian which are  cool.

This curved jade hair ornament is completely plain 



Carnelian and jade hairpins

Hairpin of  a goat and a dragon



 Not forgetting my silver hairpins

Silver hairpins

And here is a rare matching pair of insects with imperial green jade for the wings, coral for the eyes and pearl for the body set in silver gilt.

A pair of hairpins collected from a heritage house
 in Swatow, South China.



Finally my most elaborate hair ornament which I daresay is a reworked piece judging by the rather rough workmanship, nevertheless, still an exotic piece.

Hairpin made of carnelian, jade, coral twigs,  pearl and glass charms



This semi circular hairpin is composed of three bis (2 of white jade, one of carnelian) a pair of jade deers,  small coral and pearl beads, emerald green glass beads, a white jade flower, 2 small carnelian pendants, a pair of coral twigs,  a pair of carnelian bats and a pair of white jade carvings of  a bushy tailed squirrel guzzling on a nut .....oh  what an eclectic and enjoyable piece !

The central silver stick has the Chinese characters Ai Yu Zhou  (Love Jade Manufacture) inscribed on it.

LUNAR NEW YEAR OF THE SNAKE 2013

 

 

 

 

To greet Chun jie 2013 I composed this little jade snake picture from my cache of flat jade plaques. The head has a carving of a heron while the body is made up of the auspicious characters Fu meaning blessings. The tail is of a fruit with leaves.

Madam White Snake and Her aide Little Green Snake is also here to welcomes Lunar New Year of the Snake !

 



A pair of charmers



There are not many  snake objects in my collection but I did manage to turn up this charming pair. White snake on the left measures 3.5cm by 2 cm while the little curled up bundle on right measures 2cm by 0.9cm.

As the reverse of both jades have the prosperity symbol of a coin, they must have been made for lunar new year purpose.



green snake has the prosperity symbol of a carved coin on the back of its head.

prosperity coin symbol scratched on the reverse of white snake

Butterflies and flowers are also emblems of good luck for the new year as shown in my next jade picture.

 

 

Its New Year's Eve 2013, and life is great again ! May the  charming         2 0 1 3   S n a k e    slither in with blessings of health and happiness and most importantly, bring me Yu x2 ! Yu  as in abundance and Yu as in jade :)