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Subject:Not a Qing piece IMHO
Posted By: Super Sat, Jan 24, 2015
I would like to give Adam the benefit of the doubt that he commented on your piece as "looks like qing dynasty work on jade" before he could see the pictures of the complete piece. To appraise any jade pieces with only low-resolution pictures, IMHO, can be very risky and some time foolhardy. One of the most respected jade experts in North America, who was invited by a large auction house to study Emperor QianLong's archer ring collection that was sold for seven figures, absolutely refused to render his opinions on any of my jade collections based on pictures alone. He said it was difficult enough to appraise a jade piece in person and to appraise a piece with pictures alone was crazy.
Don't misunderstand me, I was cheering for you, hoping that you did indeed find a Qing piece but refrained from making any comments based on a few close up low-resolution pictures first posted by you. After you had posted pictures of the complete piece, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the chance of your piece being that of late Qing or even early Republic, IMHO, is absolutely zero.
Dave said it the best "Too many themes trying to squeeze into one item"
Why in the world would anybody mix the character "shou" (longevity) with so many other stuff on your piece? What is the purpose of such a piece, to serve as birthday gift? To wear it? To hang it on the wall? To admire it?
Secondly, the material is simply horrific (sorry), it may not even be nephrite, or at best very low grade nephrite material;
Thirdly, just because a jade piece is old, doesn't mean there should be a lot of tool marks being left on such pieces. Please do not confuse "sloppy carvings" with "manual tools" or "archaic/ancient pieces", that had more to do with "sloppy carving skills" (sloppy carvers)than anything else. You should really not see so many tool marks being left on any decent Qing dynasty pieces because like I had repeatedly said many times in this forum, prior to the invention of jade polishing methods with using high grits in the Qing dynasty, just time spending on the polishing of a jade piece alone would take a year or longer. How in the world would there be so many carving lines being left on your piece if your piece is indeed a Qing dynasty piece? Even modern high speed polishing would do a better job.
There is a total lack of luster on your piece and if you ever look at the satin look on the surfaces of some authentic Qing pieces, you would be able to tell the difference between the two. Your piece is totally DEAD. Those lines on your piece, IMHO, were done with modern tools.
In short, there are totally no evidence to show me that your piece is indeed an ancient jade piece or is worth more than the £85 you had paid for it. Whether it was a bargain or not is whether you would learn more from it as a study piece than the money you had paid for it. If yes, then it would be indeed a bargain. No pun intended because I had paid a lot of tuition buying study pieces like yours during my jade learning.
Lastly, I sincerely suggest that you may want to start a collection of jade books written by respected jade experts and learn from their vast jade knowledge and experience. Of course, since I am no jade expert, did not inherit a great jade collection from my ancestors or is able to handle your piece in person, I sincerely apologize if your piece may indeed be an authentic Qing dynasty piece. Again no pun intended and I had experienced some of your frustrations and share your love for jade. Super
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