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Jade belt hook, 3.5inches in length, fine carving,
all comment are welcome.

I took a lot of pictures of this jdade piece and these are the best to show the details.

Sorry kk, this carving does not look like it has any age.The way this type of brown colour appears does not show in older pieces. That's why I asked you for close ups of the other piece, which has a similar age. The carvers are getting extremely good trying to copy old carvings, but something is missing in the modern ones.
Ernest

Dear KK

These style of belt hook will come in pair, where is another one?

It's a modern replica.

Have fun
Anita

Ernest,
Thanks for your respond.
The brown color on the head of the large dragon is nature color inside the stone, not on surface stain(有沁). The color is in the stone way before the history of mankind. There is a name in Chinese for this color: (青白玉带糖色) . Google this Chinese word will turn out thousands of jade pieces with these colors. I will include two pieces I found here.

This jade belt hook in a way is a lot easier to date than the other piece I post earlier, because it’s dragon and flowers style shows characteristic of only one specific period in history: Qianlong period. This is a time Chinese arts show very finely details, ornate carvings, similar to Rococo style in Europe. This is a time of finest craftsmanship but no new ideas, no originality. Artists and Craftsmen were often looking back in history for inspiration (
(Archaic style). For here Chinese arts go down hill until the end of Qing Dynasty.

This craving is very fine even in the 18th Century Qianlong standard. but it is missing the other half: the female piece. I have reference materials of hundreds of Ming/Qing jade hooks, but it is very difficult to find jade belt hook with craftsmanship better than this piece. Both jade pieces were authentic by major auction house here in US.

The last pic is a similar design to show how jade hood was used. Any guess of is age?

I believe that this item is old. The only question I have is that the little beard end showing at one end of the bottom is a little odd!

The so-called 青白玉带糖色 brown candy stains on this item appear to be the patina that is what some collector called Shou Ze 手澤, and the traditional jade collectors called it Xian Qi 鹹氣 that the brownish stains were oxidation to the iron content of the white nephritge that were resulted from the salt content of hand sweat though hand touching to the area.

Hi, KK:

Although this piece appears to be carved more delicate than your first piece, but for some reasons I could not get too excited about it. I do not know if it is because it is hard to capture its real "look" on camera but its surface appears to be dull without luster. It will be allmost impossible to judge its real color or carvings unless one can examine it in person.

I would not buy this piece if I can only judge it by its pictures posted here only. Sorry.

Bill

Bill
If you want to see more “luster” on this piece, I can add more with Photoshop. It will take me a few seconds. The pictures quality is way better than most pictures in various auction websites. I think they give plenty of clues about its age.

Anita,
Thanks for your opinion. It will be nice if you give reasons to back up your claim.

kk

Thanks Randy, The "little beard" is actually the hair of the large dragon. This feature often can be found in Qing Dynasty belt hooks specially on the two piece, more fancy design.

KK

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