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Ch. 16: Jade

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CHAPTER XVI
JADE
J ADE is a verdant mineral known to man for ages, and used for personal ornaments, weapons, implements, art objects, and applied to interior decoration. The word emerald, so frequently appearing in ancient writings, is be­lieved to have sometimes meant jade—an opaque to translucent mineral—and unlike the emerald in anything, excepting a slight resemblance in colour. The word " jade" is now a generic term applied to various mineral substances, as chloro-melanite, or jadeite, nephrite, saussurite, pseudo-nephrite; these minerals are character­ised by toughness, compactness of texture, and a colour range from cream white to dark green and nearly black. Although appearing in the trade in precious stones and jewelry, in the art objects of every land, and although exten­sively imitated—sometimes in a fashion, how­ever, that could deceive no one—" jade" is
nowhere prized and appreciated so much as in
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