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Earlier I posted a very small picture of a jade sculpture. Today I was able to view it and take a couple pictures. I tried to scratch the bottom with a sharp pair of high quality steel tweezers and it did not scratch, but appeared to leave a hint of the steel color on the stone. So it seems hard enough to be jade. I'm guessing it dates to the 1960s-70s by the look of the box and label. I think the carving is not of the highest quality. The owner is asking about 1000 dollars for it. I'm thinking that is too high. What do you good folks think? Thanks in advance for your input :)

Here is my take: It looks quite new to me, and I wonder if that is Jade. I am not impressed, and feel that $1000,00 can be better spend on another item. The writing is of very poor quality!
Ernest

How do I know if this jade is high grade? Thank you!

poor picture quality.
From what I see , it is another stone. . Scratch test ! !

With a strong pin, make a 3-4 mm scratch applying enough pressure, until you can see a black or white scratch.
Then tell us the colour of that tiny scratch.
Ernest

Thank you Ernest. It leaves a white mark. Should it be green? Should it be black?

Was it easy to make this white scratch?
Ernest

Thank you for your response. No, it wasn't easy. Then it disappeared.

that test indicates that it is a hard Serpentine
Ernest

Bummer. Did not know that serpentine was so shiny. What would've been the results if it was real jade?
Thanks for your response.

I'll leave the jade to the jade experts, but the subject is indicated on the box and by clues such as the hare shown in the carving to be Chang'e, the Chinese Moon Goddess. I've included the link to further information at wikipedia.org.

Good luck,

Bill H.

URL Title :MoonGoddess

Hi, Tom:

When I looked at your previous SMALL picture and box, I did not believe your piece could be made of real jade because very often all these pieces inside such boxes were tourist pieces and I had yet seen one that was made of real jade - nephrite or jadeite.

However, on these NEW pictures, the label of your piece says in Chinese: (right to Size) "碧玉嫦娥or Bi Yu Chang'e.

Like Bill H said, Chang'e is the Chinese Moon goddess. For more of her story, you can refer to this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e


Bi Yu or Biyu means green jade or green nephrite jade.

If your pictures shows the bottom of this piece reflects the TRUE color of the jade and since your scratch test shows that it cannot be scratched, then I am 98% sure that it was made of green nephrite jade.

True Biyu (green nephrite jade) can be found in XinJiang or Qinghai (at the vicinity of Kunlun Moutain), U.S.A., B.C. Canada, Russia (Siberia), etc. The source of Biyu were very limited because they were not available inside China (XinJiang was not part of China during most Chinese dynasties). As a matter of fact, after the late 70s it was very difficult to find REAL nephrite for jade factories to make jade carvings, and they were reserved for making high-priced antique imitation pieces. At the bottom of your jade piece, I believe it says in Cai Shu or simplified Chinese (8 characters) : "Master Art Designer, Special design for festival celebration."

I do not know how the size and weight of your piece and therefore could not estimate its cost in material. Normally, if you multiply the weight of the piece by 2 to 2.5 it would be the raw material needed to carve a piece. Sometime, for more delicate pieces, it may even require more material.

It is almost impossible to judge what type of biyu (green nephrite) by its look or even by its physical property. DNA typing of jade material in order to pinpoint the original source of nephrite jade, while had been discussed, is still not reliable.

However, any pieces that were made of Siberia spinach green nephrite jade, will be worth quite a lot in material alone. If I have to guess the age of your piece, based on its material and workmanship, I would have to say probably in the late 60s or very early 70s. Strangely enough, after the Olympics being held in Beijing, China, there seemed to be significant leftover of Biyu material (after making Olympic medals)and some of the pieces made of this material (weight from 300 gram to 750 gram) will be sold from $ 80 to $ 299.

I have seen this piece of so called Tai Shan Biyu Chang'e here:

http://detail.china.alibaba.com/buyer/offerdetail/673169856.html

Its asking price is about RMB 2400 for 1-20 pieces (about US $400); 2300 for 21-40; 2200 for 41-50.

It actually says dollars but since its company was in China (ShangTung), therefore I assumed it was listed in RMB.

However, I have checked on the Tai Shan Biyu:

http://baike.baidu.com/view/4605674.htm#sub4605674

While it says this type of biyu has a MOH hardness of 4.5 - 6 (which may or may not pass the scratch test; if it can pass the scratch test, it has to be harder than 5) and its specific gravity is only 2.53-2.85, too low for nephrite jade (2.90 or higher). Therefore, at best it is only a very high-grade serpentine or serpentine-nephrite mixture.

It would be almost impossible to tell for sure if your piece is made of REAL nephrite jade or not because some high-grade serpentine can pass the scratch test. Pieces that were made of green jasper (hardness of 6.5 or higher) can also easily pass scratch test. It will be almost impossible to tell from pictures alone without performing a specific gravity or refractive index test on them. Just like I said previously I have yet seen mass production pieces from China that were put inside boxes were made of REAL jade (nephrite or jadeite) because such materials were both expensive and not readily available inside China (had to be imported). Usually real nephrite jade were reserved only for high-priced antique imitation pieces.

I do not know if the $1000 asking price for this piece is in U.S.A. dollars or?

There is a Vintage Chinese Dark Green Spinach Jade Large Quan Yin:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Chinese-Dark-Green-Spinach-Jade-Large-Quan-Yin-/290556218679?pt=Asian_Antiques&hash=item43a6800d37

with an asking price of US $ 1,199 or Make an offer. I cannot tell if it was made of real green nephrite jade or not.

I believe if your piece weighs at least 300 gram and if the dealer would offer return privilege with no question asked with one hundred percent refund guarantee, I will not pay more than $ 200-500 for it. If it was made of real biyu (after confirming with Specific gravity test), then I believe may be just may be it will be worth this price. It is very difficult to put a price on any ART piece, especially a MODERN jade piece.

Good luck. Hope this may help.

Bill

Thank you Bill for the very detailed response. I don't think my pictures are very good and I believe they do not convey the actual size, which is about 12 inches tall and 8-10 inches wide. Your estimate of 300 grams Is much lighter than the actual piece, which I estimate weighs about 5 pounds. The color of the stone is very close to the color of the picture of the bottom. What struck me about the stone is that it did not have any impurities that I could see, also the weight was impressive. I realize making the determination from a picture is nearly impossible. This leaves me wondering what course I should take on this item. It does not belong to me and I would only be interested in purchasing it to re-sell for a profit, or perhaps consign for the owner. I'm wondering if any conclusions could be drawn from a specific gravity test? If so, I may recommend the owner take it to the local college and see if that could be performed. Thanks again for your help.

Tom

S.G test should be between 2.9 - 3.0 if it is Nephrite
Ernest

With such an impressive weight and such vivid green color shown on its picture (bottom of piece), I believe the piece would be more than likely made of real green nephrite or biyu.

I did not try to estimate its weight because I did not know its size, I simply said any piece that weigh more than 300 gram will be worth a look. With your piece weighing about 5 pounds, that means the raw material usedto make it would be at least 10 lbs or more. That makes it quite unlikely that this piece was made in the last ten years because material such this alone would be both difficult and costly to obtain.

However, after saying that, unless you are truly a professional jade dealer, it would be extremely difficult to appraise the resale value of such a piece. If you pay $1,000 for it, you may or may not be able to resell it for a profit because it is still a MODERN piece (< 100 years old).

Thanks again for the responses. The owner of the piece is away for a month or so. When he returns, we'll try to get a SG test done. It's definitely more than ten years old. best guess is 1960s or 70s.

Regards,

TomW

I run into a similar carving, same color...Not Jade.
So far I haven't been able to get my hands on it, but maybe soon. With other words, those "carvings" were made within the last few ( two?) years.
Ernest

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