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Re: Really great jade pieces or fakes?

Posted By: Jim
Posted Date: Jan 01, 2008 (10:09 AM)

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Bill,
Thank you for the posting of the link. These are by far the most interesting and exquisite examples of jade craftsmanship that I've seen.

I also noted the comments made and would have to agree that while modern tooling "might" be able to achieve the complexity of these items. They would still have had to have been done by a master craftsman and not cheap labor like what was suggested. Unfortunately I don't believe there exists such a person in today's reproduction industry. Since cheap labor produces cheap inferior products, as we all see today.

While Trish provided close ups of only portions of the pieces, for me the obvious care that was taken to lay out the motifs by the carver far exceeds those of today or the past 200 years or more. Though there are a couple small misalignments which human hands may make, a computer enhanced machine would not. Even though the location of where these where found has been stated, pictured documentation would enhance there validity. Since it's been obvious for years that the Chinese government has been unable to fund or validate many of these sites or expand their research into the tooling methods that may have been used in the past. I think this is where doubt of authenticity also occurs, since tooling is thought to have been very rudimentary using bamboo, corundum and other basic methods to carve and polish jade, which has been documented.
However this is where I know I'll get slammed, since some of the small intricate jade carvings would have been difficult to impossible to achieve starting around the Eastern Zhou Period, using just corundum and the element of time. I personally feel that pieces like these of Trish's and some others that I've seen may have been aided in carving by the use of diamond tooling, since diamonds have been around for over 3,000 years, http://www.belgianexperts.com/diamonds.php, and the Chinese traders traveled beyond their borders. Well anyway these are just my opinions, since I have no valid or documented proof.

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Re: Re: Really great jade pieces or fakes? - Bill - Jan 02, 2008 (05:58 PM)