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My mother in law just passed away recently and we have to have an estate sale and had a man come talk to us about it. He was real intrested in our puzzle ball and snuff bottles and said he has a few puzzle balls but ours is 10 times better so if anyone has any idea if it valuable please help thanks Donny

Easy, just tell us if you are talking about, Nephrite, Jadeite or whatever. Next, tell us about who did the carving, a master or a beginner.
Next tell us the size and the weight he Jade
Also, the age is very important..
Inform us about the colors, very important
You see how easy it is to get info, and you do not have to do all that hard work of taking sharp
photos.
Ernest

Hi Donny,
Puzzle balls or devils come in a variety of different materials. Mostly the better ones are a high number and made from ivory.
Yes they can be expensive and collectable.
You would need to post pictures in order to obtain an opinion.
Mark@imperial

I had posted pics but not sure what happened

Hi Donny,
Your pictures are over exposed. Making identification difficult.
I think based on your pictures your puzzle balls are genuine ivory and date to about 1900.
As to value its difficult as I have been out of the ivory market for a number of years. But I believe somewhere in the range of $1400-2000usd is not out of the range. Assuming of course that the material is ivory and that the condition is very good to excellent etc.
Mark@imperial

OK, so that you see what we are up against:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/market/jade_puzzle_ball

Most of those are made from Serpentine.

Your carving looks better, and if you do the correct scratch test, and it proves to be genuine Jade, you have somehow a museum piece in your hands.
The next step would be to go to a better museum, and have everything verified.
Ernest

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