Jade

Jade is a highly prized material in Chinese culture. The Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum has a variety of jade forms, including bi, cong, and huang. Two areas of the Rewi Alley jade collection stand out: daigou or belt buckles, and jade gui and other adze-shaped forms. Alley took a scholarly interest in daigou, and published an article on the form in 1956. Adze forms also interested him, as well as Canterbury Museum director Dr Roger Duff, who traced the beginning of a particular adze typology found across the Pacific to the Chinese coast. Small jade objects were ideal to give to New Zealanders visiting China to deliver to Canterbury Museum.