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This 8 cm high Buddha, carved from jade, is a recent flea market find. Probably a souvenir from 'yesterday'. But still, maybe you can date it more precisely or tell me other things about it ?

As far as I can see, it is a Buddha on a stand, which is a different stone. Both need a scratch test: With a strong needle, using enough pressure to make a 2-3 mm scratch, until it shows a tiny white or black line. Tell us the results.
Ernest

Thanks for the reply. Yes, two different pieces of jade. No, scratches would be damaging. I believe that specialists don't need them to date the piece.

Not if it is jade. Jade is too hard to be scratched by a steel pin. It will scratch if it is soft soapstone (which it is).

Cheers,
Stan

Hi Stefan,
Your carving is not nephrite jade. Its soapstone. It dates from the 20th century.
Regards,
Mark@imperial

Thank you. I stand corrected. I found one like it on the Internet, believed to be from the early 20th century. Maybe that's the case with mine too.

Yes, it was made of Shousan stone or Chinese soap stone just like Mark said.

https://www.chineseantiques.co.uk/chinese-soapstone-what-is-it-history-and-identification/

Also, I agree it is really not a good idea to perform scratch tests on any "jade" items. It does not serve any purposes. No pun intended.

Thanks for the id of the material.

Not if it is jade. Jade is too hard to be scratched by a steel pin. It will scratch if it is soft soapstone (which it is).
Cheers,
Stan

Super. .
Kindly explain how one should test jade.
Ernest

I just came across this request of Ernest, sorry for the late response. These days, I have many other stuffs to occupy my time, like enjoying my time with my grandson.

Ernest, please understand that I am not in any ways trying to challenge your expertise in jades or in how to authenticate if a piece was indeed made of real jade because very often it would be indeed convenient to ask the owner of the jade piece to do a "scratch test" (or MOH hardness test) or do a density (specific gravity) test of the material to assure that it is indeed made of "REAL" jade.

The problem is, what exactly is real jade?

Are only items that were made of either nephrite or jadeite can be considered as "REAL" jade items?
Or more specific, only items that were made of material that can pass the "Scratch Test" and/or the specific gravity can be called REAL jade?

First of all, not until around the midst Ching (Qing) dynasty jadeite was started being considered as JADE, before that, mostly nephrite jade items especially those that were made of Hetian jade were considered as real jade. That is why every time I saw some jade dealers who advertised a genuine Ming dynasty jadeite jade or any authentic jadeite jade items that were made prior to Qing dynasty, I could not help but started laughing. Had these dealers ever bothered to study the history of Chinese jade or jade material?

Also, if an item can pass either the Scratch Test or the S.G. test, then they would be jade? or authentic jades? Is it because they would be made of either nephrite jade or jadeite jade so these are the only two material that can be called REAL jade?

That is far from the truth. I had tested and saw many material that could pass either the scratch test or the S.G. test, or a few that that could pass both tests, but they were neither jadeite or nephrite. Yes, that is correct!

Also, quite a few authentic archaic Chinese jades or Neolithic jades were made of local jades that were neither jadeite or nephrite, and some especially those that were buried, corroded or burnt (in rituals) could not pass a Scratch Test or a S.G.test. To do a scratch test on any jade items without studying them closely first or performing other non-invasive tests first, IMHO, is simply irresponsible. No pun intended.

There appears to be a popular belief in the West that a genuine jade item must be made of either jadeite or nephrite, therefore they must be able to pass a Scratch test. To Chinese, only stones that are beautiful can be called JADE and to go a step further, only those beautiful stones that possess the five virtues of a gentleman can be called JADE. (*For those who are interested in learning more about these five virtues, you can search in this forum regarding five virtues of jade being posted by Bill. I had quoted from many renown jade books in some of my postings here).

Therefore, while there is nothing wrong in testing jade, but to suggest doing a scratch test on any jade pieces without first studying it, it may cause irreversible damages to the jade pieces and I learned that from some of my painful experience and might have inadvertently damaged a few authentic pieces.

Of course, I am neither a jade expert or a jade scholar or a jade dealer and therefore all my postings regarding jade here can only be taken a grain of salt. But if you are genuinely a lover of jade, then I strongly advise you to buy and study some good jade books first before you would spend another dime on "junk" jades, again that was spoken from experiences. Cheer! Super 12.19.2022 U.S.A.

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