Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries


Visitors' Forum

Asian Art  Forums - Detail List
Asian Art Forums

Message Listing by Date:
Message Index | Back | Post a New Message | Search | Private Mail | FAQ
Subject:Where can I find some cheap & decent BC jades?
Posted By: Bill Sat, Sep 20, 2008 IP: 68.18.198.29

BC jade has this unique color and appearance that one can hardly miss. The higher quality Polar jade were sought after and were used to make jeweleries and or jade carvings. The retail prices of such carvings are usually not cheap.

I have been attempting to obtain some BC jade samples for my study and yet I have troubles in finding any decent samples at decent prices. I am not trying to acquire jade carvings but simply B C jade rocks, slabs and roughs.

A few forum members commented that such jade can be acquired very easily, cheaply and in large quantities. Yet I have not been able to find any large rocks selling in decent price. May be they were all sold to China at $4 a kg.

Recently, a 5.1 kg (11.2 lb) large and good-locking BC nephrite rock was listed with a minimum bid of $ 9.99 (eBay item# 200254237246 ), with postage of $26 (to U.S. and Canada). It attracted 12 bids and the winning bid was $ 222.50
(see first picture)

Another very nice 547 apple green nephrite block that may or may not be BC jade ( 260287156918 )
started with a $9 minimum bid ($5 postage) attracted 15 bids. Its current high bid is $99.
(see picture 2)

Therefore, if any members know where I may find some nice BC jade samples at very decent prices, please let me know. Thanks.

Bill





Subject:Siberian Jade
Posted By: Bill Mon, Sep 22, 2008

There is a piece of beautiful Russian nephrite jade rough listed on eBay that attracted my attention:

290262172007
23.80 LBS - GEM GREEN RUSSIAN NATURAL JADE ROUGH

With about 21 hours to go, it received 18 bids with the current bid at $ 102.50 with $ 26.17 postage shipped in U.S.

Even at this price, it would be a very good deal for such a piece of high quality and large Russian nephrite rough because they are simply no longer easy or cheap to find. I believe the final price would be higher.

I am almost certain this is indeed Russian nephrite jade because of its unique texture.
One author mentioned that in the 20s and 30s in Beijing jade shops in China Russian jades were used in large scale to make copies of archaic jades that were sold to tourists as archaic jades. One may find some of these being exhibited in oversea museums as archaic jades today. Since the same jade carvers carved Qing dynasty jade carvings (for the emperors) carved these jade copies, therefore they were extremely difficult to tell apart from genuine Qing dynasty jade carvings. I have seen a very beautiful jade carving carved with this type of Russian jade not too long ago and I believe it was sold for around $500. It was sold as either Qing or early dynasty but I believe it was probably made around the 30s because of the unique Russian jade it was made of.

Let us see what S. Howard Hansford says about Russian jade in his book, "Chinese Jade Carving", chapter III, Sources of Supply of the Jade Stone, p. 42-43:

"Nephrite also comes to Peking workshops from deposits near the western end of Lake Baikal in Siberia. During the nineteen century several travllers, chiefly Russians, reported the presence of jade boulders there, in river valleys of the Botogol Mountains in the Government of Irkutsk. According to M. Bauer, jade was discovered in situ in 1850 in the valley of the Onot by the French engineer, J.P. Alibert, and much of the Siberian nephrite appears to come from this neighbourhood. Alibert also found rich deposits of graphite there, and these were subsequently worked by the firm of Faber, the Bavarian lead-penicl manufacturers.

Generally speaking, it is not possible to determine the source of a piece of nephrite from its appearance, but the Siberian material, usually light to medium green in colour, is distinguished by the presence of little black flecks of graphite embedded in the stone. This feature, by no means a disagreeable one, is regarded as characteristic of Siberian jade by the Chinese, who call the stone po-tsai yu, "spinach jade". It would not, however, be correct to assume that all Siberian jade is of the "spinach" variety, since the stone has been found dispersed over a wide area in the Lake Baikal region, and, presumably, not everywhere associated with graphite."

Therefore if you look at this piece (see pictures attached) you will easily see those black graphite flecks embedded in the spinach green jade rough.

Therefore I truly believe sometimes by studying the DNA or fingerprints of jade materials, comparing the jade materials of known archaic one with that of those which are in question, one may at least rule out the "modern" jade copies.

Bill








Subject:Re: Siberian Jade
Posted By: Bill Wed, Sep 24, 2008

The 23.80 lb Siberian jade rough received a total of 21 bids and its finalized price was $ 130 plus $ 26.17 postage. That makes this jade rough's (about 10.8 kg) sales cost at about $ 14.4 kg. I believe this was indeed a bargain. I actually expect higher price for it. It is possible people are not familiar with Siberian jade or may be this piece has too much mixed color and is not pure enough.

Bill

Subject:Another 467 gram beautiful gem
Posted By: Bill Wed, Sep 24, 2008

There is another beautiful 467 gram apple green jade black listed by the same dealer who just sold a similar 547 gram jade block at $135.83 making it one of the most expensive jade blocks I have seen (about $250 per kg).

250298270882

The dealer said the price tag from 60 years ago on this piece was $35. Let us see what price level this piece will bring.

B





Subject:Re: Another 467 gram beautiful gem
Posted By: Bill Sat, Oct 04, 2008

The 467 gram beautiful nephrite rough 250298270882 displayed above received a total of 8 bids, realized US$ 51 plus $5 postage. This will make its price at about $ 0.12 per gram or $120 per kg. Not cheap.

Bill

Subject:Another BC biggie!
Posted By: Bill Wed, Sep 24, 2008

The above 5.1 kg BC nephrite jade rough shown on the first message (1st picture) realized a total of $ 248.50 ($222.50 + $26 postage), this makes its cost approximately US$ 50 a kg.

There is another 6.6 kg BC nephrite jade rough listed by the same dealer (he had a total of four pieces): (see picture in this message)

160285194192

With about 2 days and 18 hours to go, it received 8 bids with a current bid price of $ 449.44 plus a $ 54.50 postage. At current price, this rough will cost a whopping $ 76.35 a kg and it makes the other piece almost a bargain.

The piece of beautiful apple green 547 gram nephrite rock (second picture in the first message) received a total of 16 bids, with a realized price of $135.83 plus $5 postage. That makes its cost to be about $ 2.57 per gram or $ 257 per kg. According to the dealer, this piece was bought at $40 sixty years ago. While it was not really a great return for the money but it shows that the price of good jade rough surely does not go down. Incidentally, I was corresponding with a U.S. rock dealer who listed genuine Wyoming Edwards mine black jade and he told me his supplies of such black jade had gone down tremendously and could not be replaced. Master goldsmiths would buy 1 lb block of such black jade from him every year and made them into beautiful jeweleries.

Bill



Subject:Just a thought and a question!
Posted By: Bill Thu, Sep 25, 2008

Just a thought, if anybody can buy BC jade at $4 a kg, in roughs of 1 kg or higher and they do not even need to be in top grade, just good enough to be real nephrite jade and presentable, won't they be making a killing selling them on eBay or in their own sites.

Honestly, there are really not that many BC jade roughs for sales (in decent prices) anywhere. I wonder if the Chinese bought all of them. BC jade carvings also cost a fortune. A bear with fish in its mouth (about 130 gram) was recently sold for $36 plus postag on eBay. I don't see any cheap genuine BC jade carvingls for sales anywhere. I wonder what the Chinese did with all these BC jades they imported because I surely do not see too many of them around anywhere. Most low-price "jade" items from China were all made of cheap serpentine and some of them are not cheap. Does anybody have a clue as to what they did with all these BC jades in China? Thanks.

Bill


Subject:A BC jade bear
Posted By: Bill Thu, Sep 25, 2008

This is the BC jade bear I talked about. I did list its price incorrectly in my last message. It was actually $26 plus postage. I do not know whether it is a bargain or not, but comparing with those small real nephrite jade carvings used to be sold for $2 - $ 4 a piece on eBay, it almost seems expensive.

B



Subject:Re: A BC jade bear
Posted By: Stan Mon, Sep 29, 2008

Bill,

We travel to Canada (Montreal and Ottawa) a couple times a year for holiday weekends. The tourist shops carry these bears by the ton. So much so that I have never even looked at the prices. They are just tourist trinkets.

Let me know if you want a bucket load. We can work something out for a small carrying charge.

Cheers,
Stan

Subject:Re: A BC jade bear
Posted By: Bill Wed, Oct 01, 2008

Hi, Stan:

Thanks for the offer and I may take you up on it if the price is right. I started seeing some smaller animal carvings made of BC jade in our local zoo gift shop selling for $18 a piece. Since I did not buy any, therefore I cannot know for sure if they were made of genuine nephrite or not. Please let me know how much those bears will cost and I doubt the decent sized one (80 gram or heavier) will cost less than $10, with Canadian dollar now at almost even par with U.S. dollar, they would not be cheap.

I am not trying to show that nephrite jades material are unavailable today but they are not necessarily cheap as some members indicated and carvings made of genuine nephrite jades cannot be sold below their material cost if they are being made today.

How would you explain small carvings that were made of genuine nephrite (weigh around 50 to 80 grams) being listed at $ 1.20 a piece with a $1.80 postage while the real postage is $ 2.40 per piece and that leaves only a 60 cents profit margin (before Paypal and eBay fees are deducted)for the dealer.

That means all his/her inventory cannot be modern but are from stocks that were made way back or he/she intends to sell them as a loss leader in order to build up their ratings or to attract customers.

The purpose of my message is to show while nephrite is still available but because it is a limited natural resources like oil and other minerals, it will become scarcer and its cost will go up. Therefore any time when you see genuine nephrite jade carvings that are sold below their material costs, you know that they cannot be made modern. If the carvings found on them were not made with modern tools and the weathering is genuine, then you know that they have to be old. However, in order to prove how old they are will be a tall order.

Bill

Subject:Re: A BC jade bear
Posted By: Stan Thu, Oct 02, 2008

Bill,

My offer was, perhaps, a bit premature. We've made our two trips to Canada for 2008. Likely our next trip will be for 4th of July weekend 2009. If I think of it, I'll send you an email with a picture from a souvenir shop.

You've piqued my interest. I'll have to look more closely next time. If the bears (nearly always with a salmon in their mouth) are all uniform I'll know that they are machined.

Cheers,
Stan

Subject:Re: A BC jade bear
Posted By: Bill Thu, Oct 02, 2008

Hi, Stan:

Thank you. I am not in a hurry. I do not know if one can really make a whole jade carving with machine only. I have seen mass production of jade carvings in China with a mold but there are still some manual labor involved. The only thing I am sure is that I have never seen any jade bears with fish (in their mouths) sold anywhere under $10. The small one usually got between $18-26 and recently a bigger one sold for $36. Therefore, they are not cheap. I do not know if they have any collector's value but the jade quality looks very good. I would like to find the Polar jade which is the top BC jade. Some of them are truly beautiful and their prices are therefore not cheap.

At one time I actually wanted to go to a small town between Edmonton and Calgary to attend a jade work shop. I forgot the lady's name (is it Debra Wilson?), but she would off a 5-day jade work shops for about $2000 (at that time, price would probably go higher due to raise of Candaian dollars) and would give you 5-pound of BC jade and teach you how to carve. Her master piecs (jade carvings) were sold for hundreds and thousand of dollars. The price did not include airfare and lodging.

I could not talk my best frined, B, into going with me. May be I would do it when I retire. I have family lived in Calgary any way.

Thank you for your assistnace.

Bill


Subject:Deborah Wilson's jade carving and work shop
Posted By: Bill Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Her name is Deborah Wilson and her official web site is:

http://www.deborahwilson.bc.ca/main.htm

Her jade work shop is acutally $ 1250 for five days and $250 per diem for more or less days.

http://www.deborahwilson.bc.ca/workshop/fees.htm

Posted here is one of my favorite jade carving made by her:

Title: Fig Shell
Material: Canadian jade, base: marble
Dimensions: 6�" x 6�" x 2�"

Enjoy.

Bill



Subject:Holly Mackerel!
Posted By: Bill Sat, Oct 04, 2008

Holly Mackerel!

The piece of 6.6 kg (14.4 lbs)of BC jade (eBay item# 160285194192)(picture posted in above message) has received a total of 16 bids and a final realized price of US$ 699 plus a US$ 54.50 postage from Canada to U.S.

This comes out to about US$ 114 per kg or $ 52 per lb.

If anybody still thinks BC jade is cheap and people will let BC jade roughs laying around for people to pick up for their private uses, they better think twice about it. Nobdoy can be that generous.

Of course this rough may be better quality than most BC jades found today, however if one will beleive that you can buy BC jade cheaper in China than in Canada, then you must be more naive than I thought. Sorry! This is just the fact with all evidence being presetned here. If you can show me where you can find some really cheap but decent BC jade to prove me wrong, please do so. I surely cannot. Thanks.

Bill

Subject:What do I know?
Posted By: Bill Wed, Oct 08, 2008

http://www.fathertimeandjade.com/jadepage.htm

One forum member pointed out a web site that was supposedly owned by another forum member. I do not know how true that is but the member who happened to own the jade web site happened to have a 14 lb jade eagle made of BC jade for sale and the price is an amazing sum of $ 16,500.

http://www.fathertimeandjade.com/BC%20Jade%20Sopel%20Falcon%20BC%20Jade.htm

Now of course I guess most of that price is for the art itself, but I guess that is a pretty expensive BC jade carving especially the member who happened to sell it is also the one who seems to believe BC jade is dirt cheap.

Bill

Subject:Re: What do I know?
Posted By: Cal Thu, Oct 09, 2008

This site has no 'member'. Has owner, moderator and persons not screened or vetted any way, not even 'register', can express opinion any kind, true or false, just as you use site as blog.

Good luck,
Cal

Subject:What constitutes a member!
Posted By: Bill Fri, Oct 10, 2008

Hi, Cal:

Please chill. One of the many definitions of member is:

a person, animal, plant, group, etc., that is part of a society, party, community, taxon, or other body.

Example: You are a member of this/your society or the human race.

You do not necessarily need to fill out an application, register, get admitted and pay a due to be a member of any informal organizations or groups.

By periodically participating in this forum, you have become a member of this forum whether you would like to be called as such or not and you would also be bound by many unspoken norms that would bind members of any civilized soceities, again, whether you like it or not.

You do need to register your e-mail address here before you can post your message.

Therefore, if you do not feel like you are a member of this forum, then you should not really feel offended by such term. Cheers.

B

Subject:Re: Holly Mackerel!
Posted By: Stan Mon, Oct 13, 2008

Bill,

Here's your chance! Have you got a truck handy?

See below.

Cheers,
Stan

URL Title :Jade Boulder the size of a VW Bug


Subject:Re: Holly Mackerel!
Posted By: Bill Wed, Oct 15, 2008

Hi, Stan:

Thank you for alerting me. I did indeed see that message and had indeed written the person posted the message for more details regarding the nephrite jade boulder. However, she responded to my inquiry but I couldn't obtain any substantial and concrete information from her yet. I am quite skeptical because I cannot imagine how such a large genuine nephrite jade boulder got to somebody's front yard the first place. She said it was left by the previous owner. It must take a whole lot of effort to cut and transport such a large jade boulder. I do not know of any places in the States one can still find such a large boulder and would think a lot of jade company would be very interested in obtaining it, especially if the price is cheap. Therefore until I can learn more, I remain very skeptical especailly it is so close to Halloween.

Thanks.

Bill

Subject:Re: Holly Mackerel!
Posted By: hallo84 Mon, Nov 10, 2008

hey Bill
Check out this page...
Are they selling jade or serpentine?

Subject:Re: Where can I find some cheap & decent BC jades?
Posted By: Robert Mon, Mar 20, 2017

I have an 80LB block 16x16x6 of B.c jade of the same appearance of the small block shown above in palm of hand I would like to sell I am in los angeles


Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries |