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Need a rock hound to ID this stone. Between 2 and 3 pounds, 8" long 4" wide 6" tall. Green with black viens translusant surface. Not sure what the white is?

Made a mistake on the weight. It weights 2.8 KG a little over 6 pounds.

Hi,P:

You did post this piece at Mui's forum and she suggested you to clean it with Vaseline. I wonder why you would want to post it here, do you not trust or like what she told you about your piece?

I almost wish you had not cleaned it, because the older look almost looked better. However, it did allow me to take a good look at its texture and I believe it had a better chance to be nephrite than serpentine based on its texture (I had similar nephrite looks like yours before) and weight.

B

Cleaned it up so you could see the rock. The white acid treatment came off, but the rust brown color will not come off.

Hi, Patrick:

Welcome back. I thought you had quit buying jade and stone carving from local auctions or estate sales. Haven't seen your posting for a while. I thought you joined Mui's jade form, did you? Had you posted this piece in her forum? I believe she will tell you right away it would be a piece of modern jade carving and I believe I would have to agree with her.

Its texture and weight make it possible to be made of nephrite. However, I had seen and felt some carvings that I believed could be nothing but nephrite only to find out they were not nephrite jade after I had tested them. Therefore, it is not possible to say for sure what your piece was made of with 100% certainty.

The truly bothering part is all these white weathering spreading all over its surface. I believe they were created with strong chemical to make it look archaic. Some may call it calcification or crystallization or weathering. However, it was made artificially to make the piece look archaic. Worse, they (the whitening) completely cover up the carving lines and therefore it would be very difficult if not impossible to really tell if there were created with modern carving tools or not. Many jade collectors will probably say the whitening were created with acid but I agree with my friend B (he is a chemist) that they were probably created with lime. Usually acid cannot do too much damages to quality nephrite jade but lime can. Try to smell it and see if you can detect some acidic or chemical smell on it.

The problem with such a large piece, especially if it was made of nephrite in archaic style is that one just could not find such large pieces of nephrite in ancient China at ancient time and in nephrite material so unlike that were found in XinJiang. This type of nephrite, now I believe, was imported from outside China, probably from Russia, U.S.A. or even Canada in modern time for the sole benefits of creating modern jade fakes.

Bill


P.S. I believe there is an actual very simply test to see if this white weathering is genuinely old or not. If you would put some Vaseline on a small area with whitening (like a 1 inch circle and let the Vaseline sits for several days). If the weathering disappears, then it is possible this whitening can be old and natural. But if nothing change in its appearance, then I believe they were created artificially. However, I have no proof that this method is approved by any known jade experts.

This is harder than soapstone. It could be Serpentine,or even Jade. Do a scratch test (app. 2-3 mm) on the soundest portion of this carving. Use a strong steel pin/needle, and put enough pressure on it to see if the tiny scratch is white or black.This carving has been treated with acids to make it look old.
Ernest

The tiny scratch stays green, but if my only choices are white or black; it would be white. The Vasoline takes the white off instantly and has no odor. Smells like a rock. Yes I posted it on Anitas site also. I took all the white off the body in about 10 minutes, and a little longer to clean the mouth with cue tips. It is a real pretty rock with multi green colors and a surface translucency. My old kitchen scale says 2.8 KG or right under 6 pounds, 8" long 6" tall and the weight is in the 4" wide. Not sure what kind of stone it is but who ever carved it was having a real hard time, it has a whole bunch of little scratches that you can only see under a magnifying glass. The stone has so many colors you can not see the scratches without good eyes, and where they gouged out the hole under the chin it has chissle marks. Even with the white off there is a lot of dirt under the white, kind of like a coffee stain but could just be more colors in the rock?

It is not green green, more multi color with greens.

I have been looking at this material for a long time, but I cannot see Jade, it has to be Serpentine. It certainly looks a lot better with that Vaseline polish
Ernest

I agree it looks better clean. I still have some edges that need work, but after washing with soap I know what needs a second treatment. Now my next question is the carving Chinese? A winged mountain ram is a Greek myth, and the style of the eyes? Are these Chinese style of eyes?

Is this coffee color part of the rock?

With such huge weight and texture, I will be surprised that it was made of serpentine jade, very possibly nephrite jade, though not necessarily top quality. However, it will be difficult to find such large size of nephrite rock to make such a large piece today. I actually have seen calcite look like that (before vaseline).

Can it be scratched or not? Do not quite understand Patrick's response.

B

Takes a lot of preasure but it can be scratched, it is a carved rock. It does not change color and stays olive green with almost black green viens, darker then it photographs. There are little scratches all over this piece, it is polished but wavy and scratches are here and there. It is not flat cut like a slab, but with minor waves.

Someone told me if I washed this rock to much it would turn white? There is not any white in this rock. Photographs white in areas but is green translucent in real life, I could scrub this rock for years and it will still be green. The rock has multi color greens and almost a yellow coffee stain type color, but still yellow green.

I agree, it looks much better clean. Your close-up shots show a much softer? surface, maybe the shine of the vaseline is making it look glossy at a distance. Very interesting piece to me also, I am sure I could not have passed it by either.
-Adam

Thank you everyone, I will put it with my collection as another interesting piece. Seems the collage geoligist said nephrite stone.

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