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During one of my business trips to China, I bought a few pieces of white nephrite jade from an old acquaintance in Taiyuan, Shaanxi. These are new carvings, from a batch he collected about 7 to 8 years ago. I was told they are Xinjiang jade. I did not pay much for them so I am not anxious about whether they are fake or low grade jade. They were offered by a sincere, old friend who probably got them as a large batch directly from source.
What do the forum think of these pieces?

Nice new jade carvings...easily worth a few hundred £'s to around £1000...
Particularly like the twin cats carving

Nice and it looks like Jade carvings....it looks like Jade. If you check them for little bubbles, and don't find them, indeed, you have a nice set to start with your jade collection.
Ernest

Adam and Ernest, thank you for your comments. I am planning to get more pieces when I travel to China again soon. I got them at at an affordable price because of my relationship with the collector but his own supply is limited due to difficulties in Xinjiang. Hope to be able to post pictures of more pieces soon. Thanks again.

At first blush, they look good. The carving on the first Bi disc is very abrupt and sharp, obviously modern. The stylings and craftsmanship on the other two are much closer to the older pieces, as well as the soft surface luster which is less glossy. For scale, how big are these pieces? The use of the brown sugar jade inclusion in the flowers is a nice touch on the cat carving -- is there perhaps a butterfly carving hidden somewhere on the pair of cats? These carvings often form a rebus, and I've most often seen the pair of cats with a butterfly..

Nice looking pieces, very curious what you paid for them -- that actually might be the best indicator of their value!!!

If you are concerned (and I think you should be!) with the material being fake, I can give you instructions to determine their density using a precise scale which you can get for around $40... Get a scale that measures at least down to .1g. Weigh each piece. Then get a container of water in which you can submerge each piece that fits on the scale, such as a small plastic cup. Put enough water to submerge the piece in. Zero the scale with that much water, then dangle the piece into the water by a cord or very thin string. Divide the weight of the piece by the dangled water weight. You want AT VERY LEAST 2.85 or so, preferably around 3 for nephrite.

Best,
Will

Hi Will,the diameter of the pieces range from 5 to 5.5 cm with thickness of 1 to 1.5 cm. The second piece is slightly thicker.I have recently posted pictures of 3 more pieces from my same source.

I am quite sure that the nephrite are real but I will surely try out your instructions to do the density test anyway. Thanks!

I was actually sworn to secrecy on the price I paid for all the pieces (close to 10) that I had acquired to date. I am not sure of what is today's market value for such pieces; I was told that good pieces can fetch up to 20,000 RMB each. I do not know if these that I had picked up would be in this price range but needless to say, I would not have afforded them if they were.

I post here one other piece which is carved with a "fu" 福 on one side and a "shou" 壽 on the other.

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