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I have a mirror that appears to contain a jade border, not sure of age, but it looks old. Please comment, thanks.

This could well be Jade. Do a scratch test with a strong needle. 2-3 mm, and hard enough to make a white or black scratch. Also give info of when and where obtained.
Ernest

This piece looks like a bangle before it was converted to a mirror. The metal work looks Southern Chinese-Cantonese, of the 1900's, from a copper nickel alloy called yellow paktong. The jade bangle is nephrite and has a color that is common in Ming jades which is the grey white with brownish tinge and white patches. It has some wear to it and stain light brown inclusion, possibly from long term wearing by previous owners.The taotie mask decoration gives it a archaic appearance which was popular in the beginning and at the end of the ming dynasty. Such design are also found in bronze vases of the period. In the 1900's due to interest in chinese antiques in the west and locally such articles were made into all sorts of things like boxes, mirrors and letter openers to be sold to westerners. However when the antique jade ran out they made replicas which are also commonly found with such articles. However, I suspect yours is Ming and of the period.

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Paktong a Fujianese term for white copper is a alloy of copper, nickel and Zinc. These alloy can appear as white or has a slight yellow tinge. the earlier paktong were generally white but the 19th century paktong have a yellow tinge and hence the name yellow paktong. If these yellow paktong was polished vigorously with a piece of white tissue paper it would almost look white. The white tissue paper will look black. Paktong was commonly used on furniture and were even exported to europe in ingots to be cast into candle sticks.

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