Posted 14 years ago
Grendelking
(72 items)
Phoenix Statue purchased on an on-line auction site from China.
I was told that it is antique jade but now I have a feeling that it is not.
It chipped the other day and the inside is white and chalky looking.
Buyer beware I guess. :-(
Could someone please inform me if this is an actual antique jade statue or not?
Thank you.
as far as i know jade is extremely hard and it should not scratch with a sharp knife, this seems to have several scratches, but it is a very good looking item, there are several sites online that give you indicators to check wether something is real jade or not, it may be worth googling a few
ian
Hi Ian
I collect a great many Jade pieces and typically when broken, it is the same colour and consistency as the outside. Jade being rock, if it is extremely old can become calcified, it would still not be white and chalky, but again stone like. I have collected books on the subject and estimate I have over 50 pieces as part of my collections, all are genuine Jade, some are reproductions, to be made look old, but are still over 100 years old. It is only the pieces up to and older than 2000 years old which are becoming calcified.
Unfortunately, the Chinese are also masters at the art of deception and many pieces of art have been reproduced to look old, this is something they generally cannot achieve with the ageing of Jade, this is something which happens over many hundreds to thousands of years. Some items have been carved from Jade and River stone and in which case you can see the obvious colour differences. It can be many different colours from greys, greens, yellow, pink, red and of course the more common Jadeite or Nephrite green jades.
I hope this helps.
I forgot to ad it is still a nice piece and worth collecting. See if you can't order some text books on the Topic, that will explain things in more detail. Jade is very cold to touch plaster or composite materials are not.
Looks like a good piece too me. I also collect ancient Chinese jade. It looks like it has grown a "second skin" calcium infiltration is common with very old pieces. The softer the stone, the deeper the infiltration while harder stone will "grow a second skin" and stay closer to the surface. BTW the oldest know stone carving ever found in China was made of serpentine. They carved many different kinds of stone and called it jade or "YU" just one word to describe many varieties of stone. The quality and age of the carving trumps the lapidary value any day. It looks like it could be a brown nephrite (jade) under the "calcium oxalate skin"... Look for crystalline like formations on the "skin" under 10x magnification loupe and good lighting, (if they haven't been polished/cleaned away). This can help to confirm age. Looks like Han Dynasty or earlier to me.
Hint: I also will sometimes Sand paper away a TINY area (and blend) on the bottom of the foot or base to learn the true color/nature of the stone. I would not recomend any further cleaning or polishing on the rest of the piece other than a little dish soap and an old tooth brush. The patina is very desirable.
OOPS, I didn't see the part about the chip... OK, so probably a softer stone then- Same age.
Thank you everyone for your help. :-)