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I have a few various types HongShan jade, which I think is authentic, need second opinion. Anyone can advise? Thanks.

There are only app. 300 genuine HongShan jade carvings in this world. How many do you have??
Ernest

How did you get that number 300 from? From all the documentaries I saw, this are some of them,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNRm3pLNX9Q,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTw_1gx-jQY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE10nURyveM
there are more.

There are definitely more than 300. From another documentary a single dig, a farmer discovered around 50 jade pig dragons.

Nevertheless I understand where you are coming from. We really need an expert who can do a thorough physical examination, to even come up with a decent conclusion. Thanks for taking time to reply.

Over 9000 jade objects have been dug up during this excavation alone in 2007. see pics. Pig dragon over is 72 cm in length and 88 kg in weight was also found. Seems that there are a lot of authentic Neolithic jade around, some dug up by farmers, flooding them into market too at that time too. see webpage link also.

http://www.friendsofjade.org/current-article/?currentPage=5

I know you are full of this crazy love for Hongshan jade and your pursuit in obtaining them and learning more about them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But before you would spend any more of your hard earned money, it may be best for you to spend some money on credible jade books and do not depend on what you can readily find from internet. Anything that can be obtained free usually has equal value. You always get what you paid for. Also, do not believe every Hongshan jade in any museums is authentic. A while ago, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan paid a lot of money for some fake Hongshan jades and exhibited them in their museum. These days, even many experts can be fooled. A few large auction houses in China paid millions of RMB for some "authentic" Hongshan jades only found out later they were fakes. That is why many now stay far away from Hongshan jades. Is there really a "Hongshan culture"? Why nobody had ever heard of it until these past two decades?

Of course, you may have to learn it the hard way, after paying more tuition. However, I do have to commend your love for them. GLTU

Hi Super, thanks for your warning. I believe everyone who collects antiques needs a wake up call when buying, so that they will not end up with fakes, for this I must thank you for the timely warning.
But Hongshan jade is very rare where I am and even if they are real many are ignorant of them. I only buy from collectors who's parents are handed it to them. That is of course besides the point.
Hongshan culture is discovered in 1935 by Japanese in Mongolia according to these websites and more.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/217743.htm
http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/217743.htm

I can't answer the 2 decades question you are asking, because, if no one is interested to check about china's history then some may not know about Hongshan until later in their life when they start searching. I only came to know about them last year and ever since I have been reading and watching documentaries to know more. But being careful does not mean one have to dismiss all documentaries as untrustable, untrue and unworthy of our time . That is too extreme. Keep an open mind and explore further. May be you are right but there is also a possibility that Hongshan people did exist but not as what the archaeologist depicts them to be. I must say that I don't trust archaeologist 100% because all of it has to do with guesswork and they make their conclusions by looking at artifacts that is dug up and form their own theory. Therefore they may not be 100% accurate. But we should keep an open mind and explore with caution and curiosity.
Why don't you share some of your bad experiences / lessons with us all so that we know exactly where you are coming from, and learn from one another. Thanks.

Hi Chin,

Here is my reply to your request for advice:

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Dear jac, I am new here and an collector of Hongshan jade. I have posted pics of C dragon, bi ,bird, and a couple of other relics and waiting for replies, Can help me out by looking at them. Appreciate your views and your advise. Thanks.

http://www.asianart.com/phpforum/index.php?method=detailAll&Id=77743
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Top photo - C dragon is modern.

Middle photo - I don't know for sure as I am not a jade expert. Based on my jade collecting experience, I would not buy any of the items shown in the middle photo.

Bottom photo - Both are fakes, poor material, poor workmanship.

You asked me for advice and these are my opinion based on my knowledge and experience.

Judging by the material that were used to make your Hongshan style carvings posted here, the chance of any of them being authentic is close to nil. Sorry.

Do not know how big our C Dragon in your first pic is. Probably small. There are no known excavated large C Dragons and the most credible material is dark green bi yu like the Manasi River (Xinjiang) nephrite jade. I cannot remember seeing any small excavated C dragon either. The pic shows your C dragon to be more white than green on my monitors, but I almost believe it may be celadon. Do not believe it is nephrite jade though. Interestingly, I do not remember seeing any authentic Hongshan jade carvings especially jade birds and pig dragons that were made of white nephrite jade. I did see some high-end Hongshan fakes made of white Hetian like nephrite jades. Some authentic Hongshan jade carvings were made of beautiful celadon nephrite jade that is very similar in quality to Hetian jade.

The two pieces in your middle picture were made of cheap green serpentine, with artificial white weathering covered parts of their surfaces. Both will not pass the scratch test. Very cheap fakes.

The two monsters in your last picture are probably large, with the left one made of cheap serpentine and the yellowish one made of other soft stone. Both are obvious fakes. Large Hongshan carvings such as these are highly suspicious and there were no official excavation records for large monsters such as these.

You may want to obtain some good Hongshan jade books to pursue further studies than wasting your money on future purchases of Hongshan style pieces that were not even made of real jade. No disrespect intended. Super

Thanks for your comments. The pics are not very clear esp the colour. The C dragon is actually yellow colour. The bird and bi did pass the scratch test b4 I bought them. Yes it is difficult to tell just by pics and Hongshan jade is hard to come by.

Those who are interested to see more HongShan jade, here are more links.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZuwPe3U8s

The jade C dragon in the documentary is somewhat similar to the colour of my jade C Dragon.
the 3rd photo of the sun god about 12cm and 18cm respectively, and about 1 kg.

More pics of HongShan jade from museum. It looks like more type of materials are use to make hongshan objects. There are a lot of documentaries in Utube to show that this is true, even then we have to go to pics of China market which flood the world with fakes. We have to see pics of fakes and of authentic ones.

Here are some documentary by CCTV on yellow jade dragon for viewers who wants to know more other than the green C dragon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKBI0FhqwIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G55a0E0DtTo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7rwJ1a4EQ

Hongshan culture is an established culture which was discovered in 1935 and was named by archaeologist who dug them up in Mongolia. HongShan in Chinese is called Red Hill. See the URL below for more about this culture.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/217743.htm

More pics of Hongshan jade from museum. There is a museum in Beijing China called Museum of Long Tan that has a more than 20,000 of Hongshan stone and jade artifacts etc. See below for the URL Worth paying a visit to that museum to know more about HongShan culture.

http://english.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20100318/101093.shtml

Apparently more and more Hongshan artifacts are dug up every year by interest groups. There is also a association of hongshan culture in Beijing where members share and exchange knowledge of this culture.

Another jade dragon in museum in China, see pic from URL below.
http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/100Arts5965.html

1,368 jade artefacts dating back 8,500 years ago went on public display in Beijing.

More pics of Hongshan Jade items from Da-Han museum. More museums exhibiting China national treasures. Look at their sun gods and the other artifacts. If you have any you can compare them and see if they are similar.

http://www.dhdart.com/files/356-1002-153,c4-1.php

Pics of flat pieces of Hongshan jade or of that period. Real Hongshan jade are rare so don't expect to see a lot of it even if there are fakes. The point is why did these poor farmers get so many so call fakes. Don't expect to buy heavy machinery and also harder than steel, jade stones and start a home assembled workshop and also hongShan jade books and grind them down to make them look like the authentic ones.

You're telling us this is old ? Are you sure?

from what museum again? Where us that "museum" located please, how come those HS are found anywhere in specialized related literature ?

It looks like a scam to me, sorry to put it so frankly.

Everybody is entitle to their opinion if they are not an expert. Scam or no scam, let an expert give their evaluation. Which museum? Surprise you are as blur.

my C shape dragon is mysterious & appealing the feel of the stone is nephrite for sure, whether or not it is an authentic Hongshan carving makes no difference to the pleasure of owning such a piece,
why ponder & worry about it, unless you have spent a large amount thinking that you have an ancient jade, I am sure most if not all my collection are copies, & I love each one of them, someone has spent many months carving them, & they are still used as amulets bringing good luck to the owners

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