Posted By: Tim
Posted Date: Sep 05, 2008 (12:14 AM)
Hi All!
Anita helped me to discover that some of the extra large pieces I've found, but did not buy are modern fake archaic jades. Some points that we discussed to tell the fakes, but mainly her ideas are as follows:
1. Pieces are much larger than real ancient pieces.
2. Style is not right.
3. Pieces have way to much patina, especially white patina, which is most likely put on by using an alkaline solution.
4. Pieces are proper weight and hardness of nephrite, most likely, because the base material is made of nephrite, though British Columbian version which Anita said sells for about $40 USD a kilogram in Hong Kong.
5. Big heavy pieces passed the harness test of 5 to 6 hardness points.
I can't help but notice that the majority of these pieces have a small area where the patina was removed to show the material underneath is green, but not the nice lighter apple green I've seen on real archaic pieces.
Normally in museums they don't clean off the patina to show a small portion of the original base material.
Well I hopes this helps?
Tim
