View 73 superb examples of later Chinese jades, presented in a special installation to coincide with the publication of a major catalogue documenting the museum’s collection.

The core of the museum’s collection of Chinese jades was donated by Avery Brundage (1887–1975), an avid and discerning collector. Brundage formed most of his collection of approximately 1200 pieces between 1935 and 1960, a time when Western study of jade was in its infancy. Over the past decades considerable new information has become available in this field, both from archaeological discoveries and from careful research of period texts and of objects for which the date and history is well established. Much of this new research has been undertaken by experts in China.

In 1996 the Asian Art Museum began a systematic study of the jades in the Brundage collection. This included bringing a series of experts from China to survey the collection. The first was Yang Boda, ex–deputy director of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and a world-renowned specialist on Chinese jades who spent two months conferring with the museum’s curators. Following him was Mou Yongkang, Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Zhejiang province, and then Deng Shuping, the expert in Chinese jades at the Palace Museum in Taipei.

Armed with a new understanding of Chinese jades, the museum has published a major catalogue of its later objects in this medium. The focus is on the period from the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to the early 20th century; the 391 objects are divided thematically: animals and birds, objects of an archaic nature and copies of antiques, visual puns, religious objects, jewelry and other items of personal adornment, objects intended for the use of China’s educated elite, and utensils and vessels.

"Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century" November 10, 2007–August 17, 2008 - Tateuchi Gallery, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Illustration : Water vessel with two parrots and prunus, approx. 1900. China. Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Nephrite. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60J455