| Stones like the soapstone and quartz are | | | | |
| rarely known but they have significant | | | | A transparent variety of quartz is rock |
| importance in countries like China in their | | | | crystal, which was carved with consummate |
| religious life besides their other uses in | | | | skill in both Classical and Renaissance |
| articles and figure. Here you will know more | | | | times. Examples of European work are seldom |
| of them in more details. | | | | seen outside the principal museums, and the |
| | | | magnificence of most of the surviving |
| Soapstone | | | | specimens is a clear indication of why they |
| | | | were, and are still, so highly valued. |
| After jade, the principal stone carved by the | | | | Specimens of Chinese carved rock crystal are |
| Chinese is soap-stone, a very soft material | | | | sometimes to be seen. They take similar forms |
| varying in colour from a light brow or pale | | | | to jade, and both vases and figures were |
| green to a distinctive rich and deep red. It | | | | made. |
| is easily scratched with a pin and reduces to | | | | |
| a white powder; it breaks without much | | | | Hard stones of many kinds were used for the |
| difficulty, and in spite of these obvious | | | | making of decorative panels, known as Pietre |
| optimistic owners of specimens sometimes | | | | Dure or Florentine Mosaics, for tabletops and |
| miscall differences jade. In the eighteenth | | | | other purposes by the Italians. The Grand |
| century it was often carved in the form of | | | | Duke of Tuscany started a workshop for this |
| figures of the Immortals of the Taoist | | | | purpose at the end of the sixteenth century |
| religion; more recently it has been used for | | | | and, apart from specimens in museums and |
| vases with carved and pierced ornament, and | | | | collections all over the world, there is a |
| for wine- and teapots. | | | | museum in Florence devoted to the art (the |
| | | | Museo dell' Opficio delle Pietre Dure). In |
| Old pieces of soapstone will be found to have | | | | addition to making panels to form pictures in |
| been neatly and carefully finished, and to | | | | the manner of marquetry, but using colored |
| have a high polish that is lacking in modern | | | | marbles and stones instead of wood, other |
| specimens. Many old examples have a subtlety | | | | panels were made with the inset stones carved |
| of colour that is worthy of a more durable | | | | in relief: bunches of highly polished |
| material. | | | | cherries were a popular subject. |
| | | | |
| Quartz | | | | The Japanese family of Shibayama introduced |
| | | | the inlaying of colored shell and other |
| The Chinese into decorative vases and figures | | | | material into their ivory carvings, and from |
| carved a pale pink-colored or a green-colored | | | | this spread the inlaying of hard stones, |
| variety of quartz. Most examples are clumsy | | | | mother-of-pearl and anything else considered |
| in appearance and not very carefully carved; | | | | suitable into panels of lacquer. All this |
| few are very old. | | | | inlaid work is known as Shibayama, although |
| | | | it only faintly resembles the original work |
| Other stones | | | | of the family. |
| | | | |
| Lapidaries in both East and West have used | | | | Books |
| many other decorative stones, both large and | | | | |
| small,; the list of them is too long and | | | | Jade is the subject of Chinese Jade |
| their descriptions too involved to be | | | | throughout the Ages, by S. C. Nott (1936); in |
| included here. However, mention must be made | | | | which pieces are described and illustrated in |
| of two of the more important. | | | | black and white and in colour. Chinese Jade |
| | | | Carving by S. Howard Hansford, 1950, |
| Derbyshire Spar, known also as Blue John | | | | illustrates fewer examples, but the |
| (surmised to be a corruption of the French | | | | information it contains is valuable. |
| 'bleu-jaune' from the prevalent colors of the | | | | |
| stone), an unusually vividly marked variety | | | | Both these two types of stones were used for |
| of fluorspar mined in Derbyshire, and made | | | | decorative works. They were used both in the |
| into vases and other ornaments from about | | | | East and the West. These stones, especially |
| 1770. Some of the finer eighteenth-century | | | | quartz were highly valued and they still are |
| examples have ormolu mounts, which were made | | | | highly valued for their precisions. |
| by Matthew Boulton in Birmingham. | | | | |