Jade sculpture in East Coast Road, East Singapore for sale

Tai shan Jade
In Chinese art, "jade" (known by the Chinese character "yu") is an ornamental stone used in a wide variety of jewellery art, figure carving and other types of sculpture - in statue-form and relief sculpture. Jade carving has been an important material ingoldsmithing since the age of prehistoric art, and still accounts for most of China's hardstone carving. One important reason why carved-jade objects were (and are) so highly prized, is because the Chinese believe that jade represents purity, beauty, longevity, even immortality. In addition, jade carvers valued the stone for its glitter, translucent colours and shades. (For more about the cultural principles of ancient China, please see: Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Art.) Since the time of the Majiabang, Liangzhu and Hongshan cultures (4700-2900 BCE), most jade carvings have been made from either nephrite or jadeite, although until the late 18th century Chinese jade objects were almost always carved out of nephrite. Jadeite has a similar hardness to quartz, while nephrite is a little softer, but since both varieties are as hard as steel, they cannot be cut or carved with metal tools. Indeed, the traditional method of carving jade was to wear it away with carborundum sand and a soft tool: a technique since replaced by rotary tools with diamond bits. Historically, due to its rarity and technical difficulties of manufacture, the wearing and use of jade was restricted to tribal leaders, then Emperors and noblemen, and was most commonly used in the carving of ritual vessels, ceremonial utensils and other totemic objects, representing status and power.