Jade flowers (yu hua) form an important part of the Lowlands-collection. We found the first few in an antiques shop in Amsterdam in the late 1960's. The jade flowers in the Lowlands-collection date from the Song (AD 960 – 1279) to the Ming period (AD 1368 – 1644). Even though in the West they are often called buttons they were not meant to be used as such but served as decoration on clothing and in jewelry. Jade flowers are miniature Pieces of Art created on primitive equipment without the use of machinery. The detail of some of the flowers is incredibly fine and it remains a miracle that they have withstood the test of time. We took the liberty to use the classification system of the late Professor Dr Cheng Te-k’un (Zheng Dekun) as described in his wonderful book “Jade flowers and floral patterns in Chinese Decorative Art”. We owe a lot to Professor Cheng who served and still serves as our guiding angel and as stimulating force from the moment we found his book in the 70’s in a bookshop in Zürich, Switzerland.