• abrasive

  something rough, like sand, which can be rubbed against something else to make it smooth

• abundance

  a lot of, a great amount

• administrator

  a person who is an organiser or manager

• agate

  a semi-precious striped stone; a type of quartz

• alkali

  the opposite of acid in chemistry

• altar

  a table or raised structure used in religious practice

• anaemia

  a disease where a person has abnormal red blood cells

• aventurine

  a semi-precious quartz (type of stone) with many reflective particles

• backed-on

  a way of fixing one piece of glass to another, back to back

• blowpipe

  a hollow pipe used to blow air into glass

• bronze

  a metal made by mixing copper and tin; Chinese bronze also contains a little lead

• Buddha

  the founder of the Buddhist religion

• Buddha’s hand citron

  a type of citrus fruit that looks like fingers, sometimes called finger-lemon

• Buddhism

  one of the six main world religions

• calligraphy

  the art of writing

• carved

  making a shape by cutting

• carved in relief

  cut away to create a raised design

• cased glass

  when one layer of glass is inside another

• celadon

  a soft green-coloured glaze (coating which protects a ceramic object); it is made by firing (baking) an iron-based glaze at a high temperature

• censer

  a container used for burning incense

• ceramic

  an object made of clay that has been fired (baked hard)

• chalcedony

  a type of semi-precious stone; a type of quartz with very fine crystals, often grey or blue in colour

• character

  the symbols used in Chinese writing

• chopsticks

  a pair of sticks used for eating food, especially in China and Japan

• cicada

  a large, noisy insect that can live up to 17 years

• Confucius

  an ancient Chinese philosopher (thinker); born 551BC, died 479 BC

• corruption

  dishonest and illegal behaviour

• crizzling

  when glass gets spoilt because it decays, a process of glass decay

• Dalai Lama

  the leader of Tibetan Buddhism

• Daoism

  a Chinese religious philosophy (way of thinking)

• diamond point engraving

  a way of cutting a design with the point of a diamond

• ding

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel with three legs used for cooked food

• domestic

  of the home, household

• dynasty

  a series of rulers from the same family

• Emperor

  title of the ruler of China

• enamel

  a type of paint or painting that uses ground coloured glass

• engraved

  a design is scratched or carved into a surface

• evergreen

  a tree or plant that keeps its leaves all year round

• facet-cut

  a technique of cutting away at an object leaving many flat surfaces

• fang hu

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel with a square shape

• foot-ring

  a simple base for a vessel consisting of a ring

• glaze

  a protective shiny coating used to make something (especially a ceramic) waterproof or to give colour

• gourd

  a hard shelled fruit, similar to a pumpkin, sometimes with a shape like the number 8

• grave goods

  objects buried with a dead person

• gu

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel used for drinking wine

• gui

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel used to hold food in religious rituals

• hu

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel used to hold wine

• huqqah

  a pipe used for smoking, with a water container and a long flexible pipe

• immortal

  living forever, never dying

• incense

  something that smells nice when it is burnt

• incise

  cutting into something with a sharp tool

• jade

  a type of very hard semiprecious stone, the common name for the minerals jadeite and nephrite

• Jesuit

  a member of a Catholic group called the Society of Jesus, founded in France in 1534; they were known for their missionary work overseas

• Jiaqing

  Emperor of China from 1796 to 1820

• Kangxi

  Emperor of China from 1662 to 1722

• lacquer

  a hard, glossy coating made from the sap of a tree (rhus verniciflua), often coloured red or black

• Li Bai

  one of the greatest poets of the Tang dynasty (618-907); born 701, died 762

• marble

  a hard type of stone with mottled colours

• marquetry

  a way of putting patches of differently coloured glass onto a glass vessel and then carving bits away to create a design

• marver

  a hard, smooth surface for rolling hot glass on, used in glassmaking

• marvering

  rolling hot glass against against a hard smooth surface (a marver); used to embed pieces of coloured glass into hot glass

• meiping

  a popular shape of Chinese vase; meiping means plum vase in Chinese; it has a narrow mouth, short neck and broad, high shoulders that curves down to its base

• mould-blown

  blowing a bubble of glass into a mould

• mythological

  not real, legendary

• opaque

  not see-through

• overlay

  a layer on top

• patina

  a thin film on the surface of an object that develops with age; on bronze, this film is greenish-blue and called verdigris

• peasant

  a member of a lower social class; poor farm workers were often called peasants in the past

• pigment

  something that can be used as a colouring

• pontil

  a rod used in glassmaking to hold the glass while it was being worked on; may leave a mark on the glass called a pontil mark

• porcelain

  a type of ceramic made from crushed rock and clay; the body is usually white in colour and finely potted

• press-moulded

  made in a two-part mould

• Qianlong

  Emperor of China from 1736 to 1795

• realgar

  a red and orange mineral, arsenic sulphide

• reign

  the period of time for which an emperor, king or other ruler rules

• reign-mark

  a set of four or six Chinese characters, often on the base of a Chinese object, which gives the name of the emperor in whose reign the object was made. Sometimes objects have false reign-marks, for example an early reign-mark may be put on an object made later.

• scholar

  an educated person

• sealmark

  a mark written in seal-script; a style of writing used in seals for signing personal or artistic names

• serpentine

  a soft green or brownish red mineral with patterns similar to those of a snake’s skin

• Silk Route

  a trade route bringing silk and other goods from China to Europe and taking goods back in exchange

• snuff

  powdered tobacco sniffed up the nose

• taotie

  ancient Chinese design of a monster’s head

• technique

  a way of doing a particular task, method for making something

• tortoiseshell

  the shell of a tortoise, mottled yellow and brown, used for making ornaments and jewellery

• trade route

  a route over which objects are bought and sold, often used to get luxury items from around the world, like silk from China

• transparent

  see-through

• wheel-cut

  a way of carving a design with something rough like sand (an abrasive) and the edge of a rotating wheel

• yi

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel used to pour water in ceremonies to honour ancestors

• Yongzheng

  Emperor of China from 1723 to 1735

• zun

  an ancient Chinese bronze vessel for holding wine