Chinese carvings

In the middle of the twentieth century carvings were coming onto the market that were made of Bakelite and were intended to imitate old Chinese carvings in burmite. Visually they were very successful and for a while even some museums were fooled, but tests proved them to be fakes. 

Babylonians) carved pictures of the poppy plant into tablets inscribed with the words hul ("joy ) and gil ( plant ). In the classical literature of Virgil (ist century BCE), Somnus, the Roman god of sleep (a translation of the Greek Hypnos), was sometimes described as carrying poppies and an opium container from which he poured juice into the eyes of the sleeper. Chinese legend has the poppy plant springing up from the earth where the Buddha s eyelids had fallen after he cut them off to prevent sleep. 

Today jet is also available from various other places, for example Utah and Colorado, New Mexico, China, and the Ukraine, but it is not of the same quality. Much of it is dull in appearance, and some, though it takes a high polish, is brittle and liable to crack when worked. It is possible that the difference in qualities lies in the age of the material. For example, Chinese jet is reckoned to be less than a quarter of the age of English jet, and though it can be carved, it cannot be polished to the same high lustre. The material from New Mexico tends to fracture (Fig. 2.1). To a purist, these materials are not true jet. 

The true masters of the art of carving hove always been the Chinese, and, with their reverence for ivory, the carvings they have produced in this medium are unsurpassed in quality- Beautiful statues, ornamental objects with carvir so intricate that it resembles lace, the ftunous balls within balls made ftom a single piece of ivory, even chains made with solid links, all these and more have been produced over the years. 

Japan was strongly influenced by China, and their craftsmanship is almost on a par with that of the Chinese. Originally, ivory was used as inlay, sometimes together with tortoiseshell, silver and gold. And, like the Chinese, the Japanese later developed the an of carving it. 

Rhino hom has been used for centuzies, by many nationalitieB, for a variety of purposes. The trade to China goes back 2000 years. For half of this time it was customary for Chinese aristocrats to present their emperor with rhino hom vessels to celebrate a birthday. These could be in forms such as cupsj bowls or brush pots, and were intended to be treasured, not used 6.3). The Chinese greatly admired rhino hom and, with their usual beautiful workmanship, carved it into all manner of items, om buttons and belt buckles to combs, bracelets and talismans. 

The material was much loved by the Chinese who carved it into snuff bottles, belt buckles, jewellery and other small items, some of which were exported to Europe. The Japanese carved it into small items such as netsuke. 

Lacquer was probably first used solely as a protective coating decorative elements have evolved with time. Objects may be simply colored in monochromatic red or black, for example, Chinese bowls and carved boxes. Other objects may be highly ornate, with patterns introduced by using metal flakes or foil to produce decorations on the interior subsurface layers. Some pieces may have designs of inlaid mother of pearl still others have a combination of metal-flake patterns and mother-of-pearl inlay. It is common for some objects to have 60-100 individual layers. Hardening and polishing each layer takes from several days to months it might require many years for completion of an article. 

Among the weapons to come out of the magical kit bag of the ancient Chinese conjurers were cannabis stalks into which snake-like figures were carved. Armed with these war hammers, they went to do battle with the unseen enemy on his home ground - the sickbed. Standing over the body of the stricken patient, his cannabis stalk poised to strike, the priest pounded the bed and commanded the demon to be gone. If the illness were psychosomatic and the patient had faith in the conjurer, he occasionally recovered. If his problem were organic, he rarely improved. 

Figure 33.1 shows an ancient Chinese compass. The spoon or ladle was carved out of lodestone and rests on a... 

The market entry challenge. Despite the fantastic growth and opportunities, access to and positioning in the Chinese market is very difficult. The buyer s markets, the China Price, the preference for local suppliers, guanxi, all make it a tough place to carve out market share. 

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