Auspicious Symbol: Agate

In ancient China, agate and pearls, corals, amber, enamel, crystal, turquoise and other treasures are also known as the “Seven treasures” of the Buddhist family. In China's Han dynasty, agate was previously known as "Joan," "Chi Chiao," "Red Jade," or "Qing Yao." The word “agate” was first seen in the book “Anerary Bifurcation of the Seven Scholars of the Analects” translated by Hou Han’an Gao. Generally speaking, after Buddhism was introduced to China, Qiong Yu or Chi Qiong was renamed “in China”. agate".

Agate crafts are often gifts of important furnishings in royal palaces and ceremonial celebrations. Tang Dynasty royalty is also very much like agate, a gold aquarium beast unearthed in Hejia Village, Xi'an, elegant, luxurious, crystal magnificent, worthy of this period of jade. In the Yuan Dynasty, the agate jade bureau was set up, and the agate treasures of the Ming and Qing dynasties still exist.

The color of the agate is extremely rich. There are "a thousand kinds of agate 10,000 kinds of jade" in the world. The common ones are red, blue, blue, green, yellow, brown, gray, black, white, etc., and their transitions from one to the other. colour.

Agate is very few transparent. Some transparent agates often contain maggots, spiders, goldfish, aquatic plants, cypresses, and other similar plant and animal forms of minerals, called "moss agate."

Agate has a variety of shapes such as concentric rings, lamellar patterns, corrugated shapes, tangled filaments and grass branches. The beautiful pattern is one of agate's greatest natural artistic features. In the innermost layer of concentric rings, sometimes a large amount of quartz crystals are contained. This is the agate “sand heart” in arts and crafts. This sand heart is both solid and hollow. If the quartz crystal in the sand core is crystal-clear, bright in color, high in transparency, and the combination between the crystals is firm, this agate is a very good jade carving material. If the center of the sand core is filled with water, this agate is a “water agate” and is extremely precious.

Agate has natural pores, and in the course of its growth, compounds with colored ions (for example, red for iron, blue for copper, purple for manganese, and green for green minerals) are mixed and solidified into a colorful, shaded shade. The ever-changing agate stone, such as a single complex, has a variety of colors.

According to the color, it can be divided into red agate, blue agate, violet agate, white agate and so on.

The fiery Red Onyx is a top grade in all kinds of agate, most respected by the ancients. In ancient books, there is the saying that "the agate is not red and I is poor." Xihong Agate is a natural red agate from the West. Donghong Agate is a red agate from Japan. At present, the red agate on the Chinese jewelry market, the general raw materials are mostly from the red-on-aluminum of the Heinz in Heilongjiang. In the blue agate, the dark blue color is a premium product. In addition, there are green agate, black agate are artificially colored, not seen in nature.

According to the structure of the ribbon, the fine silk ribbons are called silk agates, and the ribbons are called banded agates.

According to the transparency, it can be divided into transparent agate, translucent agate and opaque agate. The higher the transparency, the better the quality.

Divided by characteristics, can be divided into water agate, fire agate, onyx, city agate, moss agate, bamboo agate and so on.

Aquarium Agate refers to a variety of natural liquids that are wrapped in agate and used to create a variety of interesting works of art.

The agate, which contains plate-like mineral crystals of iron oxide in the band layer, glows with a flaming luster and is called "Fire Agate."

The texture of the agate with cloudiness is called "onyx". Vaguely visible is the agate of the “city profile”, called “City Agate.” Because of the infiltration of chlorite-containing or manganese oxides along the cracks, dendritic, plant-like patterns, or agate patterns like bryophytes, are called “mossy agates”. The agate with a bamboo leaf pattern is called "bamboo leaf agate." The main component of Nanjing's high-quality "rain stone" is also agate.

Tianjin Jewelry Street jade display counter display has many exquisite agate jade carving vessels, exquisitely carved, beautiful appearance, is a gift to friends and relatives, to move to new homes on the best treasures. At present, the value of exquisitely carved agate jade is greatly underestimated. Because the agate texture is hard and dense, colorful and never fades, such a beautiful stone should have a high collection value.

Agate's evaluation Onyx is one of the largest natural jade materials with the highest production, application and sales. It is mainly used to produce a variety of low-grade jewelry and high-grade jade or jade pieces, as well as making real stone bonsai.

In different varieties of agate, red onyx, blue agate, green agate, sardonyx, concentric ring-shaped or ring-shaped agate, water agate, and other agate are often regarded as top grade, which is deeply re-used and loved by the world.

Qiqihar Jadeware Factory has created and carved the largest agate gallbladder artwork in China - "Da Guan Yuan". This piece of art weighs 7,350 grams. The volume of the gall bladder is more than 1,100 cubic centimeters and the Tibetan water is about 850 grams. The agate material is from the west of Heilongjiang. The water in the water bladder is left after the volcanic eruption. It is extremely precious, and it can be called a rare national treasure. The famous agate jade master Mr. Wang Shusen's agate five geese is a masterpiece, skillful carving techniques.

Modern collections of jade carvings, such as agate dragon plates and shrimp plates, are also very beautifully carved, and are also a good work of agate. Some of the special agate's original stone is also valuable, for example, grape agate because of its hard jade, crystal clear, colorful, strange shape, very harsh conditions for formation, very rare, so very valuable. There was a 1.2-meter-high grape agate stone sold on the market for 230,000 yuan. In the first Liuzhou International Ornamental Stone Festival, grape agate stone with a price of 5 million yuan also appeared.

In terms of arts and crafts, agate must be bright, pure, bright, and thick; the surface is bright and clean, and the transparency is high; the pattern is clear, uniform, and has a good degree of linearity.

The agate's origin is composed of SiO2, which is often dense, nodular, bell-shaped, kidney-shaped, vein-like, pebble or gravel-like. It is a silica cryptocrystalline aggregate. Hardness 7.5-7, density 2.65, translucent texture, glassy luster.

The agate may be the most widely distributed ornamental stone on the earth. Stones such as stone, rhinestone, colored pebbles, and desert paint can all be agates. The colors are ever-changing and colorful. There is agate agate, grape agate, striped agate, moss agate, etc. It is the most characteristic stone on the earth.

China's agate production area is quite extensive. Fuxin, Liaoning Province is called the “capital of agate”. Inner Mongolia is rich in agate resources and forms an “Agate Lake” in the desert. Famous places of agate in the world are India, Brazil, the United States, Egypt, Australia, Mexico and other countries. At present, the Brazilian agate is most famous. In recent years, China has imported a large amount of Brazilian agate.

In the past, the red onyx that China imported from Japan was the red agate that was formed after heat treatment of agate containing iron, so it was also known as “red agate”. This burning red agate is no longer discolored and is also considered natural. Since the 1960s, Germany and the United States have used various methods to “make up” ordinary ordinary agates with beautiful colors and patterns.

Tianjin Jewelry Street Hedong Shopping Mall Shows Local Characteristics Tianjin Jewelry Street Hedong Shopping Mall is located at No. 5 Dazhijing Middle Road, Hedong District, Tianjin. With a total business area of ​​nearly 2,000 square meters, it is a large comprehensive jewelry store with complete functions and perfect after-sales service. The mall is beautifully decorated and has an elegant environment. Because it is located in the birthplace of Tianjin, the historical and cultural circle of Dazhilu, it has a rich cultural heritage. The mall is divided into upper and lower floors, with a layer of diamonds, emeralds, and yellow platinum. It has a dedicated jewelry culture publicity hall, displays rare fossil collections hundreds of millions of years ago, and tells ancient legends. The second floor is mainly for the wholesale of yellow and platinum gold jewelry as well as retail sale of crystal and silver ornaments. The largest gold and yellow jewelry wholesale center in Tianjin, Jinyuan Jewelry Co., Ltd., the jewelry appraisal department, and the gold jewelry non-destructive testing department are currently on the second floor. The various styles and high quality of spar and silver jewelry are blended with the local style with its exaggerated design, traditional ethnic style and unique antique charm. It has become a beautiful landscape of the mall.

Address: Dazhijing Middle Road, Hedong District, Tianjin City, Tel: 200 meters to the east of Liuzhuang Floating Bridge; 200 meters west to the direction of Fu Guanyin Temple on Jintang Highway; Next to the beautiful women's temple on Dazhijing Middle Road; Hong Qi Shun hotel.

Bus No. 46: Get off at the No. 1 Cotton Textile Plant Station; Take No. 678, No. 92, and No. 860 roads to the west at the Dazhigan Back Station 100 meters away; No. 91, No. 665, and No. 840 roads under the No. 5 Dazhijing Road Station car.

Daorong Wingbao Special Advisor: Liu Daorong, professor at the Tianjin Institute of Geology, Sinosteel Group, and a national certified jewelery quality inspector. He has been engaged in geological research, rock, minerals, and jewellery for more than 30 years. He is the author of several jewelry books. .

Interested readers can go to Tianjin Jewelry Street free advice related information, address: Hexi District, Friendship Road, No. 42 telephone.

Agate's identification There are a large number of color-changing agates on the market, but the price gap between natural agate and color-changing agate is not large. There are also many synthetic agates on the market. Their texture and color are comparable to that of natural agate. However, it is not agate. It is mostly glassy. Its economic value is very low and should be distinguished.

Agate usually uses the following methods to observe and identify:

The natural red agate has a distinct color and the band is very clear. After careful observation, dense red spots are densely arranged on the red band. Most of the fake agate pots imitated with stone have a petal pattern at the bottom, forming a "chrysanthemum bottom". The dyed blue agate is bright and uniform, giving a false feeling.

The fake agate is mostly made of stone, which is softer than real agate and can be traced on the fake agate with real agate.

The production process of high-quality real agate is strict and advanced, so the surface brightness is good, the inlay is firm, the circumference is positive, and there are no scratches or cracks.

True agate transparency is not as good as synthetic, slightly chaotic, some can see the natural water line or "cloud", and artificial agate transparency is good, transparent like a glass ball.

True agate jewelry is heavier than synthetic agate jewelry.

True agate is warm in winter and cool in summer, while artificial agate changes with the outside temperature, and it heats up in hot weather, and it cools in cool days.

Chalcedony and jasper are exactly the same as agate, and people often confuse it. In general, the agate has a ribbon structure, and the chalcedony does not have a ribbon structure of any form, while the stone is mixed with minerals such as clay in the mineral composition. Jasper shine is dim, and transparency is poor. Agate and chalcedony need careful observation to distinguish.