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Rare Jade Artifact Up for Auction – the Jade Seal of Emperor Qianlong

Emperor- Qianlong

It’s not often in Geology that you have an opportunity to personally link an item to a historical figure but thanks to Freeman’s auction house we can tie a beautiful piece of jade to one of the later Qing Dynasty emperors. Little did the Qianlong Emperor (born Aisin Gioro Hongli) and sixth emperor of the last Chinese imperial dynasty suspect one of his personal items would appear in an internet auction catalogue, but life is stranger than fiction. The item for sale is a gorgeous pale and luminous high relief carved jade seal in a celadon white tone. The carving depicts three qilong (unicorns) which are symbols of good luck among carved scrolling clouds which likely refers to the Chinese saying “Canlong jiaozi”, which may be translated as “The Eastern [blue] dragon teaching his son[s]”, probably referring to the personal situation of the emperor.

Jade is a traditional carving material in China. In ancient days in China jade was symbolized the inner beauty within humans. This certainly isn’t the first jade imperial seal. The first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang, created the first Imperial seal, in 221 B.C., also of Jade. By the time of the Ming dynasty (starting in 1368) the first imperial seal was lost. Until the Ming dynasty seals were typically reserved for Imperial use. A Chinese seal (印章 yìnzhāng) is a device used to mark important documents, pieces of art, contracts, or any other item that requires a signature – in effect similar to a signet ring or in modern times an ink signature stamp. These seals were usually carven stone, but sometimes were made of wood, bamboo, bone, or ceramic. They would be dipped in either red ink or cinnabar paste.

View a video of the seal below or visit the Freeman auction site to learn more about the seal.

Top image

We may not have any imperial seals, but we have plenty of jade for sale. Check out our selection of Jade. If you don’t see something that tickles your fancy, contact us as we only post only a portion of our inventory online.

The Qianlong Emperor in court dress. Top image by Giuseppe Castiglione – Palace Museum, Beijing, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15172620

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The Black Diamond, an Engima Weighing 555.55 Carats

Black Diamond

A gigantic black diamond, certified by Guiness as the world’s largest cut diamond is for sale through Sotheby’s auctions. Weighing in at a whopping 555.55 carats, the carbonado piece has 55 cuts and is heavier than its rivals the Great Star of Africa and the Golden Jubilee. The typical diamond is an uncovered kimberlite rock that was formed quite deep with the earth. Carbonado diamonds, one of the toughest of natural diamonds, however, are found in alluvial, sedimentary deposits. Lead istotope analyses of carbonados suggest their crystallization about 3 billion years ago, but this poses a paradox as the material carbonado is typically found is much younger than that. This paradox and a lack of mantle minerals often found in non-carbonado diamonds has lead some believe that carbonado has an extraterrestrial origin. In fact Sotheby’s suggest this hypothesis in their auction listing.

Check out Sotheby’s video of the the Enigma above or view their auction listing.

We may not have any black diamonds for sale, but we have plenty of gemstones and lapidary material. Don’t see exactly what you are looking for? Contact us as we make only a small selection of our inventory available online.

Top Photo is the Million Dollar Rarest Natural Black Diamond known as “shaan-e-kolkata” with a weight of 121.32 carats (24.264g) good round-cut presently in India.It’s certified by Golconda Institute of Diamonds, Hyderabad on 25th May 2012, an issued Certification of Authenticity by Mr. Imran Shareef (Certified Diamond Grader GIA New York, USA). Currently owned by Prem Singh from West Bengal,India. Photo by Trishtha – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35937431