The carving of jade has a long history in China. The art reached its peak in the Warring States period (475 – 221 BC) when practically all the techniques of carving were already known. See for instance item 8320, a scabbard slide in our collection which shows what the Warring Sates lapidary was capable off. Carving a jade flower was equally demanding. It was done in at least four stages by inter-connected departments each specializing in one part of the process. The original pebble or block of jade was first trimmed to remove the so-called ‘skin’, its colored rind. The jade was then sliced into sheets of the required thickness, ranging from 2 mm to about 1 cm. Sawing slabs was done with a saw made of very thin twisted iron wires mounted on a bow (photo 1 & 2) and an abrasive formed by crushing garnets (slightly harder than jade, see photo 12), mixed with an oily compound. This mixture was poured on the cut during sawing. The slabs were then recut into pieces of the appropriate size and shape with a large metal disk (photo 7 & 11). Very often, the craftsman in the tuo-gong (砣工) department, in charge of slicing and shaping, would stack 4 or 5 slabs on top of each other and then cut the required shapes in one step thereby saving time and labor. Only in the 19th century crushed garnets were replaced by corundum which is much harder. Trimming of the edges was the responsibility of the tuo-gong master as well. The next step, drilling of the holes, was the responsibility of the da-yan (打眼) department. The drill was turned by means of a bow operated by the right hand (photo 3 & 13). With his left hand the carver could feed abrasive paste to the drill. Stacked drilling was also practiced during this stage of the process. The da-yan department could produce holes of any thickness with the help of an abrasive and later with diamond tipped drills. Sometimes when the tip of the drill did not go through quickly enough, the driller would not hesitate to knock through the remaining layer by a blow of a hammer, leaving marks of breakage at the bottom of the flower. During the third part of the process, the shang-hua (上花) department was responsible for the design and the shaping of the flower, the most difficult part. Carving was conducted on a lathe which held a rotating disc firmly in place so that the two hands of the carver were free to smear the abrasive compound on the cutting surface and manipulate the jade. Photo 4 shows how the lathe was operated. Two treadles which were attached to the ends of a belt tied around the spindle, were operated by alternate pressure of the feet. The direction of the rotation changed with every stroke of the foot. The design called for the utmost skill and concentration as a slight mishandling would render the flower out of shape and therefore worthless. Five different types of discs of varying thickness and size were used ranging from a very thin sheet to a rather broad wheel (photos 5, 8 & 9). Openwork in the more elaborate rosettes was mostly done with a drill. The final step took place at the da-mo (打磨) department where the polishing took place. This was done in three stages. The flower was first gently pressed against a revolving disc made of successive layers of ox-leather charged with abrasive (photo 6) to ensure a smooth even surface. A finer polish was then administered with a gourd disc. For deeper grooves and depressions other gourd tools were used. Finally, the carved flower was covered with a layer of white wax and rubbed with a soft cloth until the jade glistened. The polishing was done so well that the majority of the jade flowers have retained their luster even after centuries of use.