Emerald

Emeralds are fascinating gemstones. They have the most beautiful, most intense and most radiant green that can possibly be imagined: emerald green. Inclusions are tolerated. In top quality, fine emeralds are even more valuable than diamonds.

The name emerald comes from the Greek 'smaragdos' via the Old French 'esmeralde', and really just means 'green gemstone'. Innumerable fantastic stories have grown up around this magnificent gem. The Incas and Aztecs of South America, where the best emeralds are still found today, regarded the emerald as a holy gemstone. However, probably the oldest known finds were once made near the Red Sea in Egypt. Having said that, these gemstone mines, already exploited by Egyptian pharaohs between 3000 and 1500 B.C. and later referred to as 'Cleopatra's Mines', had already been exhausted by the time they were rediscovered in the early 19th century.

Written many centuries ago, the Vedas, the holy scriptures of the Indians, say of the precious green gems and their healing properties: 'Emeralds promise good luck ...'; and 'The emerald enhances the well-being ...'. So it was no wonder that the treasure chests of Indian maharajas and maharanis contained wonderful emeralds. One of the world's largest is the so-called 'Mogul Emerald'. It dates from 1695, weighs 217.80 carats, and is some 10cm tall. One side of it is inscribed with prayer texts, and engraved on the other there are magnificent floral ornaments. This legendary emerald was auctioned by Christie's of London to an unidentified buyer for 2.2m US Dollars on September 28th 2001.

Emeralds have been held in high esteem since ancient times. For that reason, some of the most famous emeralds are to be seen in museums and collections. The New York Museum of Natural History, for example, has an exhibit in which a cup made of pure emerald which belonged to the Emperor Jehangir is shown next to the 'Patricia', one of the largest Colombian emerald crystals, which weighs 632 carats. The collection of the Bank of Bogota includes five valuable emerald crystals with weights of between 220 and 1796 carats, and splendid emeralds also form part of the Iranian National Treasury, adorning, for example, the diadem of the former Empress Farah. The Turkish sultans also loved emeralds. In Istanbul's Topkapi Palace there are exhibits with items of jewellery, writing-implements and daggers, each lavishly adorned with emeralds and other gems.

Olympic Green in Beijing, China

The U.S. based multidisciplinary architectural firm Sasaki won first prize in the international design competition for Beijing Olympic Green. The Olympic Green is the primary site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic, which occupies an area of 1,135 hectares, including a forest park, National Stadium and Olympic Village. Sasaki focuses on post-Olympic use and sustainability, seeking to balance East and West, ancient with contemporary, development with nature, and existing surrounding context with the Olympic Green, both poetically and programmatically. The master plan includes areas for residents and visitors in daily lives and for further development for commercial, cultural, and hotel uses after the Games, and adopts "Green design", aiming for self-sustainablity and low-cost maintenance. Sasaki's scheme is now the basis for implementing the Olympic Green.

Development

In July 2003, ICSD organized several video conferences with the Chinese counterparts on further details about the collaboration on Beijing 2008 Olympics. Experts from both American and Chinese energy industry, government agencies, and urban planning field, attended these meetings. Many presentations were shown, many questions were asked and answered, and much information was exchanged. Topics included the opportunity and obstacles to have combined heating and power units in Beijing, Beijing Olympic Park's planning, and hydrogen vehicles. Further details of collaboration were discussed. ICSD will try to organize more video conferences before the experts get together for workshops in October, 2003.

Discussion Groups

During the interaction between the U.S.A. and China on the collaboration to green Beijing 2008 Olympics, ICSD has been looking for a more efficient way for both countries to communicate, share information, and consult each other. The Internet became the most prominent tool. ICSD set up several forums focused on different issues, such as natural gas technology, hydrogen and green building on Yahoo! Groups. These forums provide an easy-to-use and fast tool for people involved in this initiative to form a working community. This is just one of the efforts ICSD is making to contribute to the U.S.-China Olympic cooperation.

CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES

By most terms of history in China, snuff bottles are a relatively recent development. Tobacco reached China toward the end of the 16th Century. Similar in time to its’ introduction into England. When tobacco was converted into snuff is hard to say but by the mid seventeenth century seems to be likely. Customs records document that by 1685 snuff was entering China although it possibly may have been in use prior to that date. Snuff, however, did not come into common usage and was largely a habit of the upper classes. The Jesuits introduced its use at court and soon it became increasingly common among the court, rich landlords and merchants.

The Chinese believed that snuff possessed medicinal qualities and that its use helped to dispel colds, cure migraine, sinus and tooth pain, relieve throat trouble, cause sweats and counter asthma and constipation. Snuff was believed to be particularly an aid to digestion. Beijing was always the center of snuff usage in China. The “Hsiang tsu pi chi”, a document written in the early 18th Century, notes that snuff was being manufactured in Beijing at this time. Mint, camphor and Jasmine were and still are added to snuff in China.

It was not until the eighteenth century that snuff-bottles began to be made in large numbers. The traditional shape for snuff bottles were that they were small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. Generally they were provided with a small spoon fixed in the stopper and capped usually with a hemispherical piece of jade. This later touch is undoubtedly a creation of the Chi’en Lung period. Snuff bottles are most probably an evolution of the small medicine bottles that are common from an earlier period and the earliest dated piece is 1653. Snuff bottles often have either the maker’s name or the date but rarely both are present together. A large number of Chinese snuff bottles carry the mark of Ch’ien Lung, but most of these were really made during the reign of Tao Kuang (1821-1850) or later. Further, most of the snuff bottles with the K’ang Hsi reign mark were made significantly later. All of the bottles with interior painting date much later and were made into the early years of the nineteenth century.

Snuff bottles are made of a wide variety of materials. These include coral, ivory, jade, jadeite, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, quartz, malachite, agate, turquoise as well as gold, silver and many more exotic materials. Despite the number of exotic materials to chose from, glass remained the most popular substance to use and most surviving models are from this material. Glass was treated much differently by the Chinese during this period than it is today. The Chinese cut and polished it like a precious stone. By mixing metal oxides, the subsequent glass could be turned into exquisite glass sculptures. The glass for these works generally originated in Shantung although the cutting itself was done in Beijing.