Page 433 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze mounted jade cup that necessarily entailed much wastage. More often,
limited supplies of the precious material may
5
3
Height 14.5 (5 / 8), diam. 8.6 (3 /s) have impelled the King of Nanyue s jade carvers
Western Han Dynasty, second century BCE to use flat jade sections — rectangular, square,
From the tomb of the King of Nanyue at Xianggang,
or circular — to create the large number of vessels
Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
(whether intended for the king's life on earth or
The Museum of the Western Han Tomb of the thereafter) contained in his tomb.
1
Nanyue King, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province The framework of this cup, found in the west-
ern chamber of the King of Nanyue's tomb, consists
The value of jade required artisans to make of two rings joined by seven vertical bronze strips.
economical use of the material. Carving an object The strips hold six rectangular jade sections, each
from a single piece of jade was an extravagance of which is covered with fine relief spirals linked by

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