DOI Heft:
No. 333 (December 1920)
DOI Artikel:Sheringham, George: The flower sculptors of China
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21401#0194
THE FLOWER SCULPTORS OF CHINA
FLOWER PIECE IN BLUE
CHALCEDONY
(Victoria aud Albert Mu-
seum, Florence Bequest)
In these days there is much talk of jade,
the bright green variety of jadeite being
the favourite in popular esteem in
England and France, and certainly it has a
rare and beautiful colour; but among those
like the Chinese, who study jade in its
great variety of colours and tones, it is not
considered the most beautiful. The
Chinese prefer—though it sounds some-
what paradoxical—every white jade that
has a colour, and is of a size large enough to
give the carver an opportunity of giving
form to his ideal conceptions. Certainly
of the carvings that reach this country it
is not the bright green specimens that are
the best as sculptures ; it is generally the
jade of other colours than the bright green
that are the finer works of art. The high
prices paid for small and often very poorly
carved green pieces is due to mere fashion
among wealthy ladies who regard these as
" mascots " and becoming personal adorn-
ments. 0 0 0 0 0 0
The right appreciation of jades is not
confined to the single sense of sight—to
handle a piece of finely sculptured jade is
a keen pleasure to those whose sense of
touch is developed. Indeed some collector
might do well to bequeath his collection of
jade to the blind of St. Dunstan's instead
of to one of the museums. This aspect of
artistic appreciation, however, is being dis-
regarded more or less nowadays by our
sculptors—for the surfaces of their work
are often like scrap-iron, and by our
painters who leave bristles in their paint!
Resonant jade gives out notes of peculiar
beauty, and in China a connoisseur is
accustomed to hang carved resonant stones
in wooden frames, so that they can be
struck like gongs or bells. 00a
There is another quality about these hard-
stone carvings which is subtly beautiful.
Most people have fished up from little
rock-pools what appear to be pieces of
green or white jade or fragments of red
agate only to find that they have secured a
morsel of water-worn bottle-glass or
homely red brick ! Objects seen in clear
water have an indefinable beauty and
undoubtedly the Chinese hard-stone carv-
ings in the quality of their surface give the
peculiar beauty of things seen in a rock-
pool or the bed of a clear stream ; in fact
as though seen through water. 0 0
In the Salting, Cope and other collec-
DOUBLE STEM OF BAMBOO
IN GREY GREEN JADE
(Victoria and Albeit Museum,
Salting Bequest)
179
FLOWER PIECE IN BLUE
CHALCEDONY
(Victoria aud Albert Mu-
seum, Florence Bequest)
In these days there is much talk of jade,
the bright green variety of jadeite being
the favourite in popular esteem in
England and France, and certainly it has a
rare and beautiful colour; but among those
like the Chinese, who study jade in its
great variety of colours and tones, it is not
considered the most beautiful. The
Chinese prefer—though it sounds some-
what paradoxical—every white jade that
has a colour, and is of a size large enough to
give the carver an opportunity of giving
form to his ideal conceptions. Certainly
of the carvings that reach this country it
is not the bright green specimens that are
the best as sculptures ; it is generally the
jade of other colours than the bright green
that are the finer works of art. The high
prices paid for small and often very poorly
carved green pieces is due to mere fashion
among wealthy ladies who regard these as
" mascots " and becoming personal adorn-
ments. 0 0 0 0 0 0
The right appreciation of jades is not
confined to the single sense of sight—to
handle a piece of finely sculptured jade is
a keen pleasure to those whose sense of
touch is developed. Indeed some collector
might do well to bequeath his collection of
jade to the blind of St. Dunstan's instead
of to one of the museums. This aspect of
artistic appreciation, however, is being dis-
regarded more or less nowadays by our
sculptors—for the surfaces of their work
are often like scrap-iron, and by our
painters who leave bristles in their paint!
Resonant jade gives out notes of peculiar
beauty, and in China a connoisseur is
accustomed to hang carved resonant stones
in wooden frames, so that they can be
struck like gongs or bells. 00a
There is another quality about these hard-
stone carvings which is subtly beautiful.
Most people have fished up from little
rock-pools what appear to be pieces of
green or white jade or fragments of red
agate only to find that they have secured a
morsel of water-worn bottle-glass or
homely red brick ! Objects seen in clear
water have an indefinable beauty and
undoubtedly the Chinese hard-stone carv-
ings in the quality of their surface give the
peculiar beauty of things seen in a rock-
pool or the bed of a clear stream ; in fact
as though seen through water. 0 0
In the Salting, Cope and other collec-
DOUBLE STEM OF BAMBOO
IN GREY GREEN JADE
(Victoria and Albeit Museum,
Salting Bequest)
179