Bidspirit auction | Jades Chinois De San Francisco:

Jades Chinois De San Francisco: Pierre d'immortalité - Paris, Paris-Musees, 1997.  208 pp., il., 26.8 by 21 cm Ex-Library book, but otherwise in very good condition with some wear to the soft cover. The name jadeite has only recently been given to the stone. For many centuries, people were convinced that there were no differences between jade and jadeite. In common parlance, it is called jade, and previously, such were considered all green, ornamental, opaque stones. The word jade is borrowed from Spanish, which is a distorted word combination Piedra de ijada. This was the name given to a green mineral the Spanish brought back from the then conquered Americas. This elusive difference between the minerals was only discovered through scientific research by specialists from geology, chemistry, physics and mineralogy. It was not until the 1860s that the final separation of the stones was made. The exhibition in 1997 presented items from ancient times to the beginning of the twentieth century.  English Edition. Rare to find.