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Picked this up at a church sale, these kinds of things always attract me. 99.9999% of the time carvings are some cheaper alternative or other common stone so I am not getting my hopes up to high for this. Its definitely a very nice piece. It's 3 separate parts: stand, bottle, lid. Attempted a small scratch test on bottom and it is not easily scratched, stone is cold, mildly translucent in some of the thinner spots, some imperfections, no air bubbles. Don't have a microscope, but I'm going to try and get a closeup photo and zoom in to see if maybe it has a crystalline look up close. Anything else I can do? Thoughts? Didn't pay much so for what its worth I won't be too disappointed if it turns out to be a dud. Thanks for any help.

I tried scratching the bottom a few times and it leave a white residue but when wiped away the scratch seems to vanish. I have done this 3-4 times and upon returning to it today there is no evidence of a scratch.

Assuming you used steel to scratch with, this means the stone is softer than steel and softer than jade.

Cheers,
Stan

So if a steel pin doesn't scratch the piece is means it is softer than jade? The white residue looks to be residue from the steel scissors over the tops as there is no scratch when wiped away. What would be your guess as to what kind of stone it is?

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