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Two small but interesting green jadeite...

So which part of Qing dynasty (emperor) did you believe these two green jadeite pieces belong?

Your first piece can indeed be made of jadeite, but I am just not sure either its color or luster are good enough for it to be a Qing dynasty piece. It is almost impossible to confirm if any pieces were made of jadeite from low-resolution pictures without testing them. I had been fooled before.

The picture of your second piece is simply too small for anybody to make anything out of it. I was extremely disturbed by its color and appearance.

Did you pay a lot for either piece, if you do not mind my asking. Just interested to see how mich one had to pay for pieces like these in China. These days, it has become almost impossible to find good jadeite pieces.

Hello super,

How are you ?

I don't know... quite difficult to say, best guess would be first half for the first one, second half for the second. It is true that low resolution picture doesn't help much.

Second picture, green jadeite shows metal "qin" due to bronze/copper oxydation, interestingly the white one is also made of jadeite and not hetian jade... I intend to have it cleaned and re-set with gold fitting.

No, those are not expensive, small stuff commonly found in antiques shops, price can vary a lot, but unfortunatly even small (authentic) pieces come at a price, jade collecting... mmm... you know...
few hundreds dollars should be a fair price for it in Yunnan, more in a beijing shop...

It is true that the fish pendant overall patina is not great, I could have have it repolished since modern jadeite is sometimes more expensive that old, but I prefer to wear it and wait for the luster to come back naturally. It was looking even worst when I bought it.

Hi, Pipane:

Sorry for asking you a tricky question regarding which part of Qing dynasty you believed your jadeite piece came from. From one of a renown jade book I learned that jadeite was not known as "real" jade till the middle of the Qing dynasty. I could not remember which year the author used as cutoff. However, another article said jadeite did not show up in the Qing imperial court till 1733, or the 13th year of Emperor Yongzheng (father of Qianlong Emperor).

(*No documentation or material evidence of jadeite in the Ming imperial court has been discovered, but jadeite was certainly present in the imperial court during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In 1733, Governor of Yunnan Zhang Yunsui sent as tributes to the court four jadeite basins and forty boxes of jadeite spheres. The Yongzheng Emperor saw them and instructed Changbao to accept them. This was the first recorded instance of jadeite in the Qing imperial court.3 Many other Qing court documents mention jadeite, referring to it variously as Yunyu, Dianyu (both “Yunnan jade”), and lüyu (“green jade”). For example, “On the sixteenth day of the fifth month of the twenty-ninth year of the Qianlong reign (1764), the eunuch Hu Shijie submitted a round bracelet made from Yunnan jade. Imperial decree conveyed: make another one based on it. So it was decreed. On this day a piece of Yunnan jade was selected and the designs for three bracelets were drawn. These were given to the eunuch Ruyi to present to the emperor for inspection. Imperial decree received: making [of the bracelets] permitted. So it was decreed.4 ”The term feicui first appeared in 1771 in the court document Zaludang (Miscellaneous Records), in an entry dating to the twentieth day of the third month. According to this entry, after the Qianlong Emperor inspected birthday gifts sent by local officials to Yuanmingyuan [the Old Summer Palace], he turned them over to the high official Yinglian to be accepted into the court. Among the gifts was a feicui vase submitted by Zhao Wenbi.5 Gongdang (Records of Tributes) records the submission in 1779 of two feicui gu-shaped flower vases by the Administrator of the Changlu Salt Fields and the Governor of Jiangsu; and the submission in 1780 by the E’er Dengbu, Customs Inspector of Jiujiang, of 26 feicui thumb rings with incised decoration.6)

In short, jadeite probably did not become popular until Emperor Qianlong and later(1770 and later). Most better jadeite pieces were probably those of imperial court and therefore difficult and expensive to obtain.

These days in China, I believe superb jadeite pieces would be much sought after than nephrite jade pieces. I remember even in early 60s, jadeite jewelries were quite expensive. Our neighbor was wholesaler of jadeite jewelries, a nice piece at that time would cost about my father's 1-2 months' salaries. Only my rich uncle from Taiwan was able to buy some for his wife. Those pieces would cost US $10,000 or more a piece today. May be you are indeed lucky to find Qing dynasty jadeite pieces in China for such reasonable prices. Thank you for sharing. Super

Yes right I thought of it too... you're right both probably second half of the period...

Hehehe...

H

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