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Nephrite

Posted By: Bill
Posted Date: Jul 27, 2009 (08:26 PM)

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It is really difficult if not impossible to tell exactly what any "white" jade carvings were made of based on pictures alone. The first problem is for the jade carving to show its "real color" on the pictures. Very often, white carvings will appear to be "celadon" (pale green) and celadon carvings appear to be white in their pictures.
Furthermore, it is almost impossible to tell what white jade carvings were made of without a S.G. test. Many white jade carving especially the one without good luster were not made of nephrite, but of white quartz or Chalcedony. The really celadon one were usually serpentine. Truly white nephrite is actually rare and more expensive than we thought, especially in the last few years.

The first two pictures of this piece appear to be white but the last two pictures appear to be a pale green tint mixed withthe white. Place it on top of a piece of white paper, examine it under natural sunlight or under a full-spectrum light source (or natural sunlight lamp) you will be able to tell if there is a pale green tint in it. I do not believe it is truly white.

The chance for it to be jadeite is very low because there is a lack of that unique "glassy luster" found jadeite pieces. I have not seen a white jadeite carving looks like this yet and I have examined many pictures of jadeite carvings and real jadeite carvings.

Therefore, I have to agree with Anita, that it was made of "white nephrite with a celadon tint" especially since it passed the scratch test. However, the luster on it is just not that appealing and there is a small chance it can be made of white quartz and this can be ruled out with a S.G. test.

Based on the luster and the quality of carving found on this piece, it is definitely a modern piece. I was lucky to have bought a few beautiful Qing dynasty white nephrite jade carvings for my study and a few of them were genuinely beautiful. If you compare a real Qing piece and a modern piece and examine their carving lines and surface with a 10x loupe, you can really tell the difference.

However, if it was made of genuine nephrite, whether white or celadon, in pretty good size, it is a nice piece especially if you did not pay a fortune for it.

Bill

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