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I have a friend with a carved stone bi disc, about which piece she's seeking opinions as to whether it is really jade or not. She forgot to add the dimensions when she sent an image of the piece, but I recall when discussing it with her recently, she made a circle with her hands that suggested it may be about six inches or a bit more in diameter. I've added a couple of images below.

The disc has what looks to me to be machine carved characters and designs (a jagged look to the edges), as well as a fracture on the rim that looks to show a powdery surface. The characters are shallowly carved into the surface within arabesque-form reserves, the latter of which have a lot of dark material that probably has been rubbed in purposely. The four characters are "大(?)吉川", pinyin Da (?) Ji Chuan. When I attempted a Google query, most of what I got back were Japanese names incorporating "吉川", for whatever that may mean.

In any event, my impression is that this is another modern piece made of either steatite, bowenite or another softer stone than jade.

All opinions will be appreciated.

Much obliged,


Bill H.

Hi Bill,
My impression based on the two pictures is that the carving style, technique and what appears to be aged dirt/or other is 20th century.
As to whether said is actually natural nephrite Jade I am unable to determine from said pictures.
Mark@imperial

IMHO. Does not look like jade and is definitely modern.

My best guess is: Serpentine, . . about 1950.
scratch test on sound area.
Ernest

My most sincere appreciation to everyone for the input on this piece. I have enough of an introduction to jadeite from my days in Burma to hazard the occasional guess from just a photo, but otherwise I'm much more secure depending on the real experts.

Thanks and best regards,

Bill H

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