Chinese Jade: My first love collecting Chinese art started with Jade carvings. Jade Animal carvings are the most collectable and artistically the most important sculptures China has produced. This is because of the individual skill, patience, and amount of time it took to sculpt this very hard gem material without the help of power tools. The quality of the Jade material should be your first consideration when evaluating Chinese Jade carvings because the best carvers used the finest materials. The finest Jade materials are very hard and very translucent. The finest Jade carvings show less burial inclusions and still maintain their translucency regardless of age. [click once on an image for more details]