Mutton fat white jade

Mutton Fat White Jade is also called Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade or Sheet-Fat-Oily White Jade by some collectors.
In ancient China, mutton fat white jade was called Mutton Fat Jade only. Modern people are used to take pure white White Jade for granted as Mutton Fat White Jade, thus White has been always inserted in the Mutton Fat Jade by modern collectors.
What is it?
We know that jade is a beautiful semi-translucent precious stone that is denser than other stones and characterized by shiny, smooth, heavy surfaces and distinct sounds when knocked on. The beautiful characteristics of this work of art have led to its value as a wonderful decorative keepsake, as well as a great collection for investment, due to the fact that the Ancient Old Jade grows in value as it ages.
Mutton Fat White Jades can be further classified by archaic ancient and modern ones. Archaic ancient ones are those carved in Han Dynasty China from 206 B.C. to A.D. 220 and owned by the Han Emperor’s family. Then it was not allowed for people not in the imperial family to own such excellent jades in private. Modern ones are those discovered and carved after Qing Dynasty China from A.D. 1644 until nowadays.
There are two major differences between archaic ancient and modern Mutton Fat White Jades. One major difference is that archaic ancient Mutton Fat White Jades have semi-boiled rice phenomena in the jades’ muscular tissues nevertheless modern ones have no such phenomena.
Another difference is that archaic ancient Mutton Fat White Jades have been buried in the earth for more than 2000 years and have been confirmed and tested the same oily in luster and smooth in surface as carved before after such a severe thousands years of burying underground, while modern ones have not been tested in the earth for 2000 years yet. The quality of modern ones is still unknown to us.
People are used to take pure white jades with oily luster as modern Mutton Fat White Jades, and it’s really very difficult to decide it’s true or not. We can’t bury these pure white jades with oily luster in the earth for another 2000 years to examine if they are qualified not to be destroyed as archaic ancient ones. We have no governmental standards to compare if they are true Mutton Fat White Jades or not, as so far there are still no such standards published by related governmental organizations. Thus everybody has a different measuring ruler in his own mind and modern Mutton Fat White Jades have become so popular almost everywhere in the world for you to examine them freely with volume. Since there are no standards, there are no true criteria, neither. People has to judge by his own preference.
Besides archaic ancient Mutton Fat White Jades were carved with extremely smooth His Imperial Majesty Dignity of Han Emperor and an Appearance of King by the excellent imperial jade carving master in Western Han Dynasty China for certain and modern Mutton Fat White Jades are absolutely not to be done and copied by modern carvings in this respect.
History
Among the Ancient Old Jades of various kinds, the Mutton Fat White Jade was a gem class jade of the best quality ever found in Han Dynasty China 206 B.C. - A.D. 25. Since it was so recorded in the history 2000 years ago, modern people have never seen it nowadays. It was the only privilege jade of ancient Emperors' family in Han Dynasty China.
Used in art
The work of art made by this kind of jade was left so scarcely and has been seen rarely in this world. Thus modern people can only use personal imaginations and the data searched from internet to guess what it was and try to figure out what it would have been looked like. Its color is as that of fresh sheep fat just cut and has oily shining luster. Its inner jade muscular tissue contents have semi-boiled rice phenomena commonly existing in the natural ancient archaic old jades. Nevertheless the jades those were carved in Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, and Modern China have no such phenomena.
Appearance
It looks like foggy translucent due to its sheep Mutton Fatlike Oily Luster appearance, while white jade looks different in this respect. Its oily white shining luster is seen with slight yellow light. It's oily and solid, translucent and clean, white and without cracks, just like the solidified sheep oily Mutton Fat. Its skin has no deceiving glass light, thus can be slightly varied after the long-term wear attached to human skin by its owner, while the jade that has been manually handled with deceiving glass light in its appearance has no such a function of varied skin colors any more.
The archaic works of art done by this kind of jade are rare. A Carved Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily White Jade Linking Clouds Royal Dragon Pendant 206 B.C. - A.D. 25 Western Han Dynasty China (H 4.4 x W 6.7 x D 1 cm 56 grams) was carved with the same "Archaic Mutton Fat Oily White Jade" as that used in "Western Han Queen's Seal" (H 2 x W 2.8 x D 2.8 cm 33 grams) collected by Shaanxi History Museum, Shaanxi Province, China.
Another typical example is a Carved Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily Mutton Fat White Jade "Linking Clouds" Emperor's Extremely Good Auspices Presented by Dragon and Phoenix Pendant 206 B.C. - A.D. 25 Western Han Dynasty China (Size: Diameter 7 x Depth 0.6 cm, Weight: 54 g).
Even if the "Archaic Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade" has been buried in the water and earth for more than 2000 years, it is only slightly soaked in skin parts and still has the same smooth, shiny, oily luster as before due to its solid and dense quality. This is its very precious value never to be broken over thousands of years and the main reason why it has been classified as gem class valuable precious stone.
The "Archaic Mutton Fat White Jade Carved Western Han Queen's Seal" (Weight 33 g) collected by Shaanxi History Museum, Shaanxi Province, China, and the "Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily White Jade Carved Western Han Dynasty Linking Clouds Royal Dragon Pendant", both are rare and have been buried in the water and earth for more than 2000 years, but they are only slightly soaked in skin parts and still has the same smooth, shiny, oily luster as before due to its solid and dense quality. This proves that their very precious value never to be broken over thousands of years and the main reason why the works of art carved by Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade have been always classified as gem class valuable national treasures in jade market.
Wonderful and Amazing Soakage of an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jade
The "Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily White Jade Carved Western Han Dynasty Linking Clouds Royal Dragon Pendant" has incidentally been soaked in its tail skin part to become "dark brown". Thus it's also a very beautiful jade carved work of art with rather rare "Wonderful and Amazing Soakage of Mutton Fat White Jade - An Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily White Jade Carved Sheep Dragon with Dark Brown Tail" existing in the world nowadays.
Basic Concepts of Authenticity Examinations against Fakes of Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades
(1) Scratch Test: Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades are firm enough to resist from Scratch Test by human finger nails.
(2) Semi-Translucence Test: Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades are semi-translucent under the light of portable flashlight.
(3) Sound Test: The sound of an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White jade knocked slightly on another jade is just like that from a fine musical instrument and very clear. It’s not such heavy as those sounds knocked by stones or plastic goods.
(4) Soakage Color Test: The soakage color formed in the earth for thousands of years are natural. People are used to put Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades in pure clear warm water for at least one day and one night to see if the soakage color is still remained the same as usual before to judge if it’s dyed manually. From long-term basis, the manually dyed Fakes will fade their false soakage colors into one another gradually.
(5) Age Test: The Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades must have the appearance and totems of Imperial Royal His Majesty Dignity of an Emperor or a King in Han Dynasty China. This is quite different from the modern jade carved work of art designed just for an Art purpose only.
(6) Carvings of Holes Test: The holes of Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades were not straight penetrated from one side. They were penetrated from two sides and formed a curve path gap between two holes from each side.
(7) Carvings of Lines Test: The inclined feminine lines of Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades were not carved by machine tools that make lines straight forward with two sides of line wall straight upward vertically. They were carved one side of line wall straight upward vertically, while another side of line wall plane inclined by ancient bronze jade carving wheels.
(8) Totems test: The Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades must have Jade Carving Totems used in Han dynasty to be presented to the Imperial Royal His Majesty Dignity of an Emperor or a King in Han Dynasty China.
(9) Smooth Carvings Test: The Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades were carved by imperial skillful hand-made jade carving masters and must be carved simply, clearly and smoothly upon specially selected solid fine jades. This kind of carving is not existed in modern world by machine tools and art carving artists or sculptors.
(10) Weight (Density) Test: A true experienced jade collector or dealer can easily tell the difference between an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jade and other stones by just holding this Jade in hand to feel its heavy weight of high density.
(11) Surface Test: The surface of an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White is very smooth and quite different from other stones. A true experienced jade collector or dealer can easily tell the difference between this Jade and other stones by just touching the surface of an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White jade carved work of art gently with his fingers.
(12) Color Test: A true experienced jade collector or dealer can easily tell the difference between an Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jade and other stones by just examining its natural beautiful color appeared in front of human eyes.
Reasons for Archaic Ancient Mutton Fat White Jades to become Gem Class Most Valuable National Treasures
The reasons why the “Archaic Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade” is classified as gem class valuable precious stone and the works of art carved by this jade have been always classified as gem class valuable national treasures are as follows:
*(1) Its firm character of being not to be destroyed in the water and earth even after having been buried for thousands of years: The hardness, solidness and firmness of the “Archaic Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade” are better than steel, iron, and other kinds of jades. The discovered ones prove that even if having been buried in the water and earth for 2000 years, they have still the same smooth, shiny, oily luster as before with the same sheep fatlike oily luster as their original carvings had, and is not to be destroyed. These jades are really the best research and development objects of the material engineering science in the world.
*(2) The beautiful characteristic semi-translucent nature shown like the changeable skin color of a lizard: Due to their natural semi-translucent character, once these jades are placed in front of backgrounds of different colors, the gorgeous colors shown by these jades are to be changed accordingly. Thus they are amazingly beautiful!
*(3) Scarcity of discovery, dense and tiny cubic volume, nevertheless bigger than diamond, can be carved into fine works of art by ancient Chinese: The formation of the “Archaic Mutton Fat Oily Luster White Jade” is under the same pressure coefficient from the crust of the earth as diamond on account of its solid and dense characters. Thus these jades are scarce and rare with dense and tiny cubic volume. Nevertheless they are still bigger than diamonds. Diamonds are not to be carved into fine works of art in different shapes full of variety by mankind, but these jades can be done freely. These archaic jades prove that even 2000 years ago, ancient Chinese had already developed the high technology to carve these extremely firm and hard “Archaic Mutton Fat White Jade” into fine and beautiful work of art for the Imperial Emperor to appreciate the art.
*(4) The Legend and Myth Stories of Jade Carved Works of Art done for thousands of years are always forever and forever to Chinese, and never to be ended: In ancient society of China, lots of Legend and Myth Stories of Jade Carved Works of Art done for thousands of years, such as their protections upon their owner mater's body good health, their collections of good lucks and fortunes in behalf of their owner master,...etc., have generally provoked Chinese directly to take great interests in the Jade Carved Works of Art owned by the ancient imperial royal family of the Emperor thousands of years ago. This is the so-called Chinese psychological historical affections upon these Archaic Ancient Old Jades that have been done for thousands of years.
*(5) Due to their extremely valuable prices, nevertheless in very tiny cubic volume, easy to be carried by human body in transit and easy to be concealed or hidden from enemies, not to be damaged over thousands of years, have made these Jade Carved Works of Art to become the best haven investment commodity in ancient China: In ancient China, the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty ever tried to exchange his 15 cities for a famous Jade carved work of art called He-Shi-Bi from the Nation Zhao in the historical record. This proves that the Archaic Ancient Old Jades that have been done for thousands of years have been always the substitutes for the most valuable and expensive, high end, strongest currency since the ancient times until now. They are shaped in very tiny cubic volume, easy to be carried by human body in transit and easy to be concealed or hidden from enemies, as well as not to be damaged over thousands of years. Thus these natural features have benefited these Jade Carved Works of Art that have been done for thousands of years to become the best haven investment commodity in ancient China, no matter it was in peaceful or warring times.
Reference
* Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily Mutton Fat White Jade carved Western Han Queen's Seal (H 2 x W 2.8 x D 2.8 cm 33 g) in Western Han Dynasty, Shaanxi History Museum, Shaanxi Province, China.
* Archaic Sheep-Fat-Oily Mutton Fat White Jade carved Dragon Pendant and Cicada (collected by Nanjing Museum) in Western Han Dynasty, Hunan Provincial Museum, Hunan Province, China.
* Mutton Fat White Jade in Chinese, Encyclopedia of Taiwan, Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, R.O.C. []

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