The transition period after death when the spirit of the deceased was acclimating itself to the spirit-world was a great concern to the Chinese, and the tomb furnishings and environment were calculated to enhance the quality of time a spirit would remain around the gravesite (usually assumed to be one year...after that it would ascend to one of the seven sacred mountains for its forever abode). Thus the addition of cinnabar was made for spiritual purposes and not for the chemical affect it would have on accompanying jades.

But many oldtime jades were colorful when first made, because the raw stone was found with those colors inherent to it. During many time periods coloration was preferred, and in the Han period and much of the medievil, the independent coloring of nephrite jades a reddish tone was actively practiced by some collectors and carvers (primarily to satisfy the desires of the nobleman who had commissioned the piece).

True black nephrite is said not to exist (there is some dispute over that, but all examples I have seen to date calling themselves "black jade" are either "jet" or "shaoshan stone"...both softer and lighter than nephrite, and found naturally in China). Those tomb jades with large areas partially colored a very dark brown to black are from the absorption of the liquid metal "mercury" which was placed in many tombs of the Han and Ming to simulate the "magic silvery pondwater that would never evaporate".

Because most jades were not carefully waxed prior to burial, ANTIQUE COLORED NEPHRITE JADES is the largest grouping of jades with us - and in every museum or historical collection around the world.

Our Antique Colored Jade is broken into a few different sections. The normal Antique Colored Jade is broken into sections based on the Dynasty it was carved in. To see the different items for sale, select one of the sections below:

Antique Ming Jade

Antique Han Jade

Antique Qing Jade

Antique Zhou Jade

Antique Liao-Jin Jade

Antique Song Jade

Antique Republican Jade