By Miriam Anderson Lytle
John Racila Associates, Inc
1982 Library of Congress Catalog number: 82-099930
John Racila Associates writes:
Climb to the mountain retreat of an ancient Buddhist monk. Peer into this Chinese hermit’s cave; observe him in his solitude and contemplation.
View a Chinese goddess—elegant and regal—yet beneficent, warm, welcoming; bestowing blessings on all who revere her.
Closely examine the sinuous rhythmically flowing form of a pair of graceful cranes captured forever in gray-green jadeite.
Marvel at the sight of a ceremonial dish hand carved from stone as thin and translucent as the finest porcelain.
The Lizzadro collection is wonderfully complete representation of the complex art form that is hard stone carving. This book is a presentation that reveals the beauty and symbolism of many fine Chinese carvings, as well as the magnificent utilization of the natural coloring and pattern in the materials used. The pieces selected well represent the amazing skill and creativity of many generations of Chinese artisans.
Through close up photography and enlarged views, this book brings into sharp focus subtle details that may take many hours of careful observation to reveal. The text instills the reader with a sense of the romance, poetic soul and heritage of Chinese culture, and gives knowledge of its great contribution to history. The breathtaking photographs and informative text are full of inspiration for the art connoisseur, the lapidary, the geologist, the engraver, the student of China, or any person interested in gaining an understanding of this intricate art form.
This book further serves as a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the museum that houses the phenomenal Lizzadro collection. Located in Elmhurst, Illinois, the Lizzadro Museum came into being out of the late Joseph Lizzadro’s philanthropic desire to share his appreciation of this special art form. This legacy continues to this day under the guidance of John S Lizzadro, director, and the help of the family whose hope is ‘to share with others our enjoyment of the eternal beauty in gemstones and our appreciation of the art with which man has complemented the work of nature’.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Diamond Cutting
Here is a comparison of some cutting times for round and fancy diamond shapes:
Round brilliant: 2-4 hours
Oval shape: 8-10 hours
Marquise shape: 12 hours
Emerald shape: 14-16 hours
Round brilliant: 2-4 hours
Oval shape: 8-10 hours
Marquise shape: 12 hours
Emerald shape: 14-16 hours
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Fatal Rapid Sight Gemstone Buying Syndrome
When you spend more than you can afford to lose….That’s Fatal Rapid Sight Gemstone Buying Syndrome. Most people go overseas with the fantasy of buying a beautiful gem / jewel at a bargain price. But the fact of the matter is you are buying gemstones / jewelry about which you know next to nothing for lot of money from a stranger thousands of miles from home who comes from a culture with a long tradition of trading. Who has the advantage? Do you know about treatments, synthetics, imitations, assembled gems? Do you really know how to identify them? Not really. I would like to use a catchphrase from Malcolm Gladwell to highlight the experience: Momentary Autism. It's really amazing. It happens.
Double Indemnity
Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson): You know, you, uh, oughta take a look at the statistics on suicide some time. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.
Edward S. Norton (Richard Gaines): Mister Keyes, I was raised in the insurance business.
Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson): Yeah, in the front office. Come now, you've never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But, Mr. Norton: Of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No, no soap, Mr. Norton. We're sunk, and we'll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.
Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson): You know, you, uh, oughta take a look at the statistics on suicide some time. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.
Edward S. Norton (Richard Gaines): Mister Keyes, I was raised in the insurance business.
Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson): Yeah, in the front office. Come now, you've never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But, Mr. Norton: Of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No, no soap, Mr. Norton. We're sunk, and we'll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.
Chinese Jades From Han To Ch’ing
By James C Y Watt
The Asia Society, Inc
1980 ISBN 0-87848-057-9
The Asia Society writes:
According to Chinese reckoning there are five colors of jade: red, yellow, white, black and green. A traditional description specifies the best colors as red as a coxwomb, yellow as steamed chestnuts, white as congealed fat, black as lacquer.
In China, jade has always had powerful ritual and symbolic significance. From the earliest times jade carvings were placed in tombs to serve as protective talismans, and Confucian scholars later attributed to the stone all the virtues of the ideal man in an ideal state. But the Chinese have been equally attracted by the physical properties of this tough, lustrous stone, giving to many small pieces the name as ‘pa wan’, hold and enjoy.
The jades assembled here, dating from the second century B.C to the nineteenth century A.D, exemplify some of the highest achievements of the jade carver’s art, and also highlight the problems that beset scholars and collectors who study these objects. Although much has been written on the archaic jades of the Shang and Chou dynasties (1523-256 B.C), the jades of later periods have received comparatively little attention. For the most part these pieces are heirlooms, passed from generation to generation and collector to collector. Archaeological finds and historical records have provided a few clues, but questions of dating, evolution of style, and the use and significance of particular pieces are often exceedingly difficult to answer.
In this volume James Watt explores specific areas in the later history of Chinese jades. He has selected certain ‘themes’, such as the evolution of the animal style or the taste of a small group of scholar gentry, and draws on recent archaeological discoveries, comparisons with other decorative arts, and traditional methods of connoisseurship to place these objects in their proper context. Over 200 examples from distinguished collections in Hong Kong and the United States are illustrated (11 in full color) and discussed in detail.
A specialist in Chinese Art, James Watt is the foremost authority on jades of the Han and succeeding dynasties.
The Asia Society, Inc
1980 ISBN 0-87848-057-9
The Asia Society writes:
According to Chinese reckoning there are five colors of jade: red, yellow, white, black and green. A traditional description specifies the best colors as red as a coxwomb, yellow as steamed chestnuts, white as congealed fat, black as lacquer.
In China, jade has always had powerful ritual and symbolic significance. From the earliest times jade carvings were placed in tombs to serve as protective talismans, and Confucian scholars later attributed to the stone all the virtues of the ideal man in an ideal state. But the Chinese have been equally attracted by the physical properties of this tough, lustrous stone, giving to many small pieces the name as ‘pa wan’, hold and enjoy.
The jades assembled here, dating from the second century B.C to the nineteenth century A.D, exemplify some of the highest achievements of the jade carver’s art, and also highlight the problems that beset scholars and collectors who study these objects. Although much has been written on the archaic jades of the Shang and Chou dynasties (1523-256 B.C), the jades of later periods have received comparatively little attention. For the most part these pieces are heirlooms, passed from generation to generation and collector to collector. Archaeological finds and historical records have provided a few clues, but questions of dating, evolution of style, and the use and significance of particular pieces are often exceedingly difficult to answer.
In this volume James Watt explores specific areas in the later history of Chinese jades. He has selected certain ‘themes’, such as the evolution of the animal style or the taste of a small group of scholar gentry, and draws on recent archaeological discoveries, comparisons with other decorative arts, and traditional methods of connoisseurship to place these objects in their proper context. Over 200 examples from distinguished collections in Hong Kong and the United States are illustrated (11 in full color) and discussed in detail.
A specialist in Chinese Art, James Watt is the foremost authority on jades of the Han and succeeding dynasties.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
DNA Tracking
Read on how seal penises, elephant dung and smashed ivory are helping geneticists pinpoint the poaching of protected species @ http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8770177
Decoding Color
(via Lapidary Journal) Terri Haag writes:
The Zulu love letter (iNcwadi Kuthanda) are messages woven in beads by Zulu girls to send to their beloveds. Some of the messages are rather tart, so perhaps the term love letters is a bit euphemistic. Pointed reminders might be more accurate. One suspiciously tourist-oriented source lists the following meaning for the colors used:
White: This is the color of purity, vision, and love itself.
Black: I have turned pitch black as the rafters of the hut as I hear you have another lover.
Blue: If I were a dove I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door.
Pink: You should work harder to get lobola (bride price money paid by a male suitor to his would-be father in law) and not gamble and waste your money.
Green: I have become thin like the sweet cane in a damp field and green as first shoots of trees because of my love for you.
Red: My heart bleeds and is full of love.
Another source is certainly more comprehensive:
There are seven colors used and every color except white has to meanings, one positive, one negative. White (iThambo/bone) is always positive and always represents purity and spiritual love. When a color is used beside white it carries the positive meaning. For instance, a white hand beside a blue band denotes fidelity and often means the person is engaged.
Black: iStimane/shadow
Positive = marriage, rebirth
Negative = death, sadness
Blue: iJubal/dove
Positive = faithfulness
Negative = hostility, dislike
Yellow: iNcombo/young corn
Positive = wealth, garden
Negative = badness, thirst, withering
Green: uKuhlaza/new grass
Positive = contentment
Negative = discord, illness
Pink:
Positive = promise, high status
Negative = poverty, laziness
Red:
Positive = love, strong emotion
Negative = anger, heartache
The Zulu love letter (iNcwadi Kuthanda) are messages woven in beads by Zulu girls to send to their beloveds. Some of the messages are rather tart, so perhaps the term love letters is a bit euphemistic. Pointed reminders might be more accurate. One suspiciously tourist-oriented source lists the following meaning for the colors used:
White: This is the color of purity, vision, and love itself.
Black: I have turned pitch black as the rafters of the hut as I hear you have another lover.
Blue: If I were a dove I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door.
Pink: You should work harder to get lobola (bride price money paid by a male suitor to his would-be father in law) and not gamble and waste your money.
Green: I have become thin like the sweet cane in a damp field and green as first shoots of trees because of my love for you.
Red: My heart bleeds and is full of love.
Another source is certainly more comprehensive:
There are seven colors used and every color except white has to meanings, one positive, one negative. White (iThambo/bone) is always positive and always represents purity and spiritual love. When a color is used beside white it carries the positive meaning. For instance, a white hand beside a blue band denotes fidelity and often means the person is engaged.
Black: iStimane/shadow
Positive = marriage, rebirth
Negative = death, sadness
Blue: iJubal/dove
Positive = faithfulness
Negative = hostility, dislike
Yellow: iNcombo/young corn
Positive = wealth, garden
Negative = badness, thirst, withering
Green: uKuhlaza/new grass
Positive = contentment
Negative = discord, illness
Pink:
Positive = promise, high status
Negative = poverty, laziness
Red:
Positive = love, strong emotion
Negative = anger, heartache
The Manchurian Candidate
Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra): Poor Raymond. Poor friendless, friendless Raymond. He was wearing his medal when he died. You should read some of the citations sometime. Just read them. Taken, eight prisoners, killing four enemy in the process while one leg and one arm was shattered and he could only crawl because the other leg had been blown off - Edwards. Wounded five times, dragged himself across the direct fire of three enemy machine guns to pull two of his wounded men to safety amid sixty-nine dead and two hundred and three casualties - Holderman. Made to commit acts too unspeakable to be cited here by an enemy who had captured his mind and his soul. He freed himself at last and in the end, heroically and unhesitatingly gave his life to save his country. Raymond Shaw... Hell... Hell.
Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra): Poor Raymond. Poor friendless, friendless Raymond. He was wearing his medal when he died. You should read some of the citations sometime. Just read them. Taken, eight prisoners, killing four enemy in the process while one leg and one arm was shattered and he could only crawl because the other leg had been blown off - Edwards. Wounded five times, dragged himself across the direct fire of three enemy machine guns to pull two of his wounded men to safety amid sixty-nine dead and two hundred and three casualties - Holderman. Made to commit acts too unspeakable to be cited here by an enemy who had captured his mind and his soul. He freed himself at last and in the end, heroically and unhesitatingly gave his life to save his country. Raymond Shaw... Hell... Hell.
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