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I have bought Guanyin made from white jade. According to seller it was bought in south China or Burma approximately 1965. Measurements: height - ca. 45 cm, width - ca. 14 cm, diameter of base - ca. 8 cm. Weight - 5,35 kg. Condition ist superb, small wear, no damages. How old could it be, is it something worth

I am surprised nobody has given you their opinions on this Gaunyin yet.

Based on its size, its texture and its luster, its approximate density (S.G.) calculated from its weight and volume that were provided by you, the chance of it being made of either nephrite or jadeite, the two true jade material, IMHO, is close to none. Sorry.

It is hard to say for sure exactly what it was made of. I would guess marble or other softer stone. You can see if you can scratch it (with metal). However, even if you cannot scratch it, it may not be made of real jade because once I saw some white "jade" that could not be scratched but upon testing for its density, it was too low to be either nephrite or jadeite. In this case, I am 90% certain that its density would be lower than those of either nephrite or jadeite.

There is a pretty big white jade buddha in our local zoo and there was a sign that said it was made of nephrite jade. However, I found out that unfortunately it was not really nephrite jade at all because it was simply too soft.

If the seller was telling the truth, your jade head should be made around the 60s, or around 70s-80s. It should be worth something for its artistic value, though not for its material. If it was indeed made of white nephrite jade, then just material alone would be worth a fortune. These days it has become extremely difficult if not impossible to find any large sized decent nephrite jade raw material, especially if they are from Hetian or XianJiang. Of course, without handling it personally, I can be wrong.

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