THE WORLD OF JADE, MARG HARDCOVER,1992

The exotic mineral has inspired both poetry and scholarship. As an artistic medium, it is unparalleled in its versatility and expressive qualities. It has been revered and traded internationally throughout the world for centuries. Impossible to carve or cleave, this intractable substance must be laboriously abraded and polished in order to create extraordinary works of art. Though pre-eminently associated with the cultural heritage of China, the much wider range of Mughal, Ottoman, Safavid, European, pre-Columbian, and Maori jades are also focused on here. The intention, then, of this collaborative study undertaken by leading scholars, is to present the beauty and complexity of one of the most ancient yet still viable artistic traditions of our times.

Stephen Markel is the Assistant Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has published a number of articles on Mughal Decorative Arts and was a co-curator for the exhibition, Romance of the Taj Mahal.