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White (a bit green) nephrite and smooth and glossy surface. Qing Dynasty??

Yes, nice old hetian neprite white jade Bixi...

Qing dynasty 300+ years. Good pick.

In many ways a rare object.

Regards,
P.

Hi Pipane,
Thank you for your comment! This one was my first collection in the Year of the Monkey.

Danny, I do like the material of your jade brush washer and believe it can very well be made of quality white (is its real color white?) nephrite jade, possibly that of Hetian. I really cannot say how old it is. Many "Qing dynasty" jades were made much later, some in early Republic, some much later.

Now for pipane to say "Qing dynasty 300+ years", IMHO, was totally irresponsible and truly reflects that fact that he did not bother to read any jade books or study Chinese history especially those regarding jades. Now he did readily admit that though.

If your jade piece is indeed at least 300 years old, that would be made in 1716 or earlier, make it being made during the era of the Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), the grandfather of the famous Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796). That would be highly unlikely if he would just do a little bit study.

On the book "Jade" that was edited by Roger Keverne, a chapter titled "THE GLORIOUS AGE OF CHINESE JADES" was written by the famous Chinese jade expert, Mr. Yang Boda (I did previously asked pipane if he know who he was).

On p. 145 of the book:
"The Slow Development of Qing Dynasty Jades
From the first year of the Shunzhi era (1644) to the 24th year of the Qianlong era (1759), a period of 115 years- jade supply from Khotan (Hetian) was limited due to the separatist policies that Mongol and northern leaders were applying. Khotan jade could not be obtained through tribute nor through smuggling and this reduction in jade source seriously damaged the jade industry, making development slow.
There were few carved jades from this period .....
In the sixth year the Qianlong era (1741), the entire jade collection of the Qing imperial court amounted to 10 complete pieces...."

Therefore, basically it was not till Emperor Qianlong had demolished all the riots in Xinjiang, hetian nephrite jades were being able to be transported to the Qing capital as tributes. Another fact is the import of jade, like that of salt was highly regulated and controlled by the Qing imperial court. Private transactions were not allowed and smugglers of either jade or salt would be executed (cutting off their heads). It is for these reasons, just material alone for a pair of white Hetian jade bowls, according to another jade books written by Yang Boda was worth about 5,000 taels of silver (you can figure out how much that would be worth in today's money; 1 troy oz. = 31.17 gram while 1 tael is about 37 gram)Also, before polishing with high hardness grit was invented during the middle Qing dynasty, just polishing a jade piece usually would take a year or longer. It is for these reasons, any genuine Qianlong jade piece would be worth 6 figures in US dollars today. Yet, there are so many jade sellers and jade collectors who would call their jade pieces Qianlong era? Did they study jade books before they bought jades?

Please understand that I am not trying to disrespect any jade lovers and I have to readily admit that there are a lot of things regarding jade that I do not know and the more I learn the more I understand I do not know. But to appraise any jade pieces, based on low-resolution alone and gave opinions of its age without any prior studies of Chinese jade and history, IMHO, is just a bit too careless.

Hi Super,
Thank you so much and lesson learned! This piece was attractive to my eye and the jade was quite nice so I bought it. The term Qing Jade is just the Qing Dynasty from 1644 to 1911. In fact, Qing Dynasty made the most jade objects then any previous Dynasty in Chinese history due to the nobles and businessmen all carry jades with them. Jade was not just for the Imperial family's only .Qing period had produced large amount jade objects. Also there were big, big different between Imperial works and the non imperial lapidary works.

Hi, Danny:

Please understand that I do like your piece because its material is very nice. Qing, beside being the name of a dynasty, can also be the color (celadon) of the jade, therefore please be careful in how you would use it.

While it may indeed be true that the arts of creating jade pieces probably peaked during the Qing dynasty, due to limited availability of hetian nephrite jade, cost of both jade material and labor costs, it was not until late Qing dynasty jade had became more accessible to average Chinese. As a matter of fact, even in today's China, quality Hetian nephrite jade, especially the mutton-fat or white seed jades had almost become extinct. Many white jades are that of Qinghai (other side of Mt. Kunlun) or Russian or not even nephrite (though passed scratch test). Some very raw Hetian jade now are worth more than gold by their weight. Its price would only continue to rise because quality Hetian jades are close to being extinct. Therefore, to create a piece of arts in quality Hetain jade these days, material alone will cost a fortune and then it would take another year or two for the carver to finish the piece, even they would charge it in thousands of dollars, they would still only earn minimum wages. That is why good jade carvers had greatly disappeared just like there are not that many artisans for cloisonne left these days. For that reason, modern quality Hetian nephrite jade pieces are in great demands these days and will actually cost more than older pieces. Therefore, do not sell this piece cheaply if you ever sell it. Once gone, it may be hard to replace it.

One of the misconceptions of many people, some time including Chinese, were believing that nice jade pieces were always readily available and were affordable. That is simply not true. Like the example I used in my last message, the material for two white Hetian jade bowls costs 5,000 taels during Emperor Qianlong era, that equals to about 5935 troy ounce of silver, at today's silver spot of US$ 15.145, it would be about US$ 89,888, material cost alone. How much you think those two bowls would be worth today?

Hetian nephrite jade pieces, even that of Qing dynasty, were never cheap. Most average Chinese families would never possess any except may be one or two family heirlooms that were inherited from their ancestors who might once be high officials/scholars who received them as gifts from the Imperial court or other officials, or rich families who could afford to buy a few. Now, they mitght own jade pieces that were made with local jades such as xiu yu, nanyang jade, ect.

In 1969, my friend graduated from the University of Taiwan, returned to Hong Kong to work as a teacher. His monthly salary then was about HK $ 600 a month (about US$120 at that time), a piece of Qing dynasty jade, according to him, would cost around HK $2,000 at that time, about 3 months of his salary. My father who has a BS in chemical engineering (rare at the time), made about HK$900 at the time, on around 1967, spent about HK$ 3,000 for a Leica M3 camera (he loved taking photo and was a professional). Around that time, my rich uncle from Taiwan came to visit us and wanted to buy some nice jadeite jewelries for his wife. We took him to see our neighbor who was working in a wholesale jade shop, some of those jadeite pieces he shown him were "grandmother" (or imperial green) and they cost then HK$ 2,000 - 3,000 each. I was so envious with his able to own those pieces. Today, they would at least be worth about US$ 10,000 or more a piece because it has become almost impossible to obtain new quality jadeite pieces without paying huge prices. In 1974, when I came to the States for college, my father bought me a stainless steel Rolex watch which cost HK$600 then (about US$120). Today, I can sell my Rolex for at least US $600 or more. Therefore, good jades were never cheap and not for average Chinese families.

Nephrite jade was being mined in late 60s in Taiwan any by 70s, they had totally exhausted. I have yet been able to find a nice and affordable example of jade piece made of Taiwan nephrite jade today.

In short, anybody who would believe quality Hetian nephrite jade pieces or jadeite pieces were ever cheap and therefore affordable to average Chinese, IMHO, were greatly mistaken. It is also true that you may have better chances in "stealing" them at outside China. I just watched a pretty nice Hetain jade piece that was for bid on eBay, with a very low starting bid, and then it was finalized at around US $2,450. I have no idea whether it was a real bargain without be able to examine it in person.

Therefore, it is really naive, again IMHO, for anybody believe they can go to China or Hong Kong and be able to buy up nice, OLD hetian nephrite or quality Qing dynasty jadeite pieces CHEAP. Do they believe there are that many DUMB and naive Chinese there?

I surely understand your love for jade and since I am not a professional, therefore what I said can only be taken with a grain of salt. Cheer and good jade hunting. Enjoy looking at your jade pieces. Thanks. Super

Hi Super,
Thank you again for your great comment and good knowledge in nephrite jade. Thanks for your reply!

Danny

good.

Thank you for your comment Tai!

Danny

Just to add to your detailed reply, I would add the following;
The only Qianlong items that would be worth 6 figures in US dollars are those marked 'by order of' rather than those marked 'made in the year of'.
The 'by order' items are those that are considered to be imperial items and do indeed fetch very high prices depending on the inscription, carving style and colour of the jade

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