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Recently, one of my jade friends sent me two jade items as gifts for the celebration of the coming Chinese New Year. He obtained these jade slits and elongated jade beads while he was traveling in China. I especially like the elongated bead because it looks older than the jade slit and has very good weathering on it. I have not seen such jade beads for sales anywhere in the internet.

This elongated jade bead is greenish-yellow in color. Its size is: 4.6 cm L, 1.1 cm W, 1.0 cm T.
It is flat on its bottom but kind of concave (in a V shape) at its top. It is hollow inside with openings on both ends. The tunnel was drilled separately from both ends because there is a slight round ridge in the middle where the drillings met. It weighs only 16 gram. It is not easy to measure its S.G. due to such low weight even with a 50 g spring scale. I obtained a S.G. from 2.68 to 2.86 in three different measuring. Its hardness is 5.5 It is possible that this piece made of bowenite but more than lightly I believe it is nephrite because I have not yet found an serpentine piece measure more than 2.65 Also, many times I found the S.G. of real weathered nephrite piece has a S.G. just slightly below 2.90

On each end there is a slight edge of the hole (toward the bottom) being carved off, leave it with a very unique appearance. I will try to post more pictures later of these holes.

The stains and weathering found on the surface of this bead seems to be very genuine and old. There is one "Silver Nail Stain" (silver spot) found on this bead.

If anybody has any opinions regarding the materials and age of this bead, it would be welcome.

I was deeply touched with such generous gifts from such a great jade friend whom I had originally met in this forum.

We have so much fun in corresponding and in discussing jades almost daily. Since he traveled so much in China, he is almost like my eyes and I got to see what jade pieces are currently available in different parts of China. I am truly blessed.

Thanks.

Bill

Dear Bill

Pls avoid spider web like cracking colour on jade, they are mostly low-temp heating and then dip in red dye color and/or iron ore solution.

Have fun
Anita Mui

I was always attracted by unique jade materials. My theory is that while it is easier to fake the form and style of jade carvings it is harder to fake the unique jade materials because many of them are simply no longer available. This reflects on the special local nephrite jades used on many authentic Hongshan jade carvings. This type of nephrite has long been extinct. Of course, many collectors do not agree with me. However, there are many jade experts are now using jade typing in confirming the authenticities of unknown jade pieces by comparing them with known excavated archaic jade pieces. Jade material simply does not lie.

I recently obtained two jade carvings that were made of very unique jade materials with bright orange-red stains. They are both extremely translucent (see pictures). They both have some types of spider looking stains and unique jade texture. The three holes found on the first piece are puzzling, with one look very modernly made and the other two manually made. There is another unique thing about one of the holes. I believe one of the two pieces is old while another is modern.

It is very possible that both pieces can be modern and their stains artificially made. However, until somebody can show me similar pieces with such jade texture and stains, I would not be convinced. (*The orange stain is quite vivid on the actual pieces but not as bright and colorful as shown on their pictures).

Anita's opinions regarding these two pieces as to their material and age would be most welcome.

Bill

Bill,

You said:

>> "My theory is that while it is easier to fake the form and style of jade carvings it is harder to fake the unique jade materials because many of them are simply no longer available. This reflects on the special local nephrite jades used on many authentic Hongshan jade carvings. This type of nephrite has long been extinct."

Rocks are becoming extinct? This is news! A mine may play out, but there is another one over the hill. Many a gold mine is shuttered but we are still mining gold by the tons every year. Somewhere, as I am typing this, jade is slowly be created by natural processes just as it has for billions of years. Your theory is, well, crap.

>> "Of course, many collectors do not agree with me."

I'm on their side.

>> "However, there are many jade experts are now using jade typing in confirming the authenticities of unknown jade pieces by comparing them with known excavated archaic jade pieces."

It is possible to say a jade is similar or likely from the same source as another. That tells you little about its history. Was it mined yesterday or 1000 years ago? Was it carved yesterday or 1000 years ago?

Cheers,
Stan

Hi, Anita:

I agreed with you on the spider web part and I did see a few modern fake pieces with this type of treatments. But most of them were made of serpentine. The color of this bead looks like serpentine but its S.G. (very hard to measure) is may be too high for serpentine. Its tool marks and drilling are not modern. (drilled from both ends; if it is a modern fake, it would only drill from one end, much faster and easier). It doesn't make any sense for anybody to fake this bead especially with those weathering (of course it is possible they can be faked too).

M still has two pieces of similar beads. If you get with him next time, take a look at them.

If you see any similar beads in HK, please take a picture of them. This is the first time I have seen such bead anywhere. D likes the one Mike had.

B

This second piece has similar jade texture but is smaller than the first piece.

This piece is about 8.3 cm W and 3.8 cm H.

The first piece is 5.5 cm W (top), 9 cm W (bottom)and 4.2 cm H. Its bottom edge is much sharper than its top edge. The top edge is about 3 mm but the bottom edge is only 1 mm. It makes one wonder if it is some type of tools for scratching animal pelts.

B

Bill,

This is a fake, Anita's right.

Regards,

Pipane

So, you must have a lot of them too?

Please post pictures?

Why are they fakes? Nothing modern about the tool marks and carvings.

How do you know your stuff are not fake?

B

Hello Anita (and Bill),

I have to agree that this elongate bead appears to be a recent fake�and I agree that it has been crackled and turned red (the pigment gathering in the cracks, mainly). The Chinese have been making similar fakes, that I know of, since the early 1980s. I will bet it is serpentine, and not jade. Bowenite? OK.

Jamey

Jamey
Let's stick to Serpentine.. but not the Bowenite variety. I think Bowenite does not take treatments like that.
Ernest

Jamey and Ernest:

I am sorry but I believe you both are wrong in this case, this bead is neither made of serpentine or bownite, because its S.G. and hardness is simply too high for either.

The friend who gifted this piece to me just wrote me and said unfortunately the piece he gave me had this type of spider web but the rest of his beads (probably from a necklace) did not have this spider web.

This bead was made with ancient tooling. I wish my friend can post pictures of other beads he bought from the same vendor here for comparison.

He is very well traveled, in both China and Hong Kong, and this is the first time he found such beads.

If both of you believe it is modern, it should not be too difficult for you to post pictures of similar pieces here for comparison, would it?

I sincerely do not believe they are modern. If you can sell similar beads to me as modern pieces, I would be very happy to buy them from both of you in modern bead prices. Thank you.

Bill

Here are a few more pictures of the bead.

Hello Bill,

The bead is extremly beautyful, from the photographs I cannot see anything that speaks against the authenticy of the bead. The Green Slit Ring you've posted in the other tread is even much better, extraordinary color and wonderful jade. I really believe these are authentic neolithic artifacts. It is good to see something like this after beeing exposed to all that frosted jade grap posted in the other forum.

Bill, one word about Pipane. I believe he is not always communicating very well what he want's to say in English, like myself, since we are not native english speakers. Many of the hongshan artifacts he is showing on his site, however, I retain to be authentic eventhough unfortunatly for me to expensive. Further, from what he is saying, I see that he has a long experince evaluating ancient jade artifacts and great insight in the production process of modern jade artifacts. I believe we all could learn something from him, I do! I agree with Pipane also on what he is saying about the DZI beads. As you know, previous to collecting jade I collected Tibetan Ritual Art for over 20 years, and I know that it is nearly impossible to find authentic ancient DZI beads (500 years and older made with the ancient technique) for under US$ 15.000 minimum. Dzi beads are the most faked artifacts of all artifacts existing, and it is even more difficult to find an authentic DZI bead than an authentic hongshan jade. Moreover, since authentic DZI are fall down from heaven, no Tibetan who is in possesion of an authentic old DZI Bead would ever sell it, for no money in the world. So it is really hard to come buy an authentic DZI. Every DZI you see on the market is presumably not authentic and I presume the DZI Randy is showing are not authentic. Regarding DZI beads there should be the greatest caution.

Diasai

Hi, Diasia:

Thank you for your comment although I believe some of these other members may not agree with you. But I do believe you possess one of the best eyes in this forum. If I have only seen this one piece of elongated bead I would doubt its authenticity but I was fortunate to see all the other ones shown by my jade friend. They all look uniquely different. Even with modern tools, this bead is very hard to make. It is really not round-shaped, instead it is flat on its bottom and then with a pyramid type of top, the inside was hollowed out from both ends, meeting in the middle and left a center ridge there. Both ends were bored (small piece taken out). There are a lot of workmanship involved and that may be why I have never seen similar beads anywhere.

As for the jade material, one person was comparing them with gold, to me that is really like comparing orange with apple. Gold is gold, one can hardly distinguish between different types of gold once they are melted. Gold ore, yes, but not refined gold. I know because I collect gold coins too. However, it is a different story with jade. Each jade material has its unique properties and no two are like. Jades mined from one source are different than those come from other. People do not understand how hard it is to even acquire a nephrite piece that has a S.G. of 3.0 and higher and a hardness of 6.0 and higher. Not even all Hetian jade pieces have such high quality. It is truly sad that people express their opinions without any references or evidences. I have been studying jade and other non-jade materials for a while now. One thing I can tell is how good or unique the material is.

That is the reason I truly believe the jade slit is indeed unique and archaic because such high quality of celadon material is similar to those found in authentic Hongshan jade carvings and it is simply impossible to find their likes in the current China.

Again, without understanding what they are talking about, people are making uneducated comments. To me, it is not even worth my comments.

Thanks for your comments.

Bill

P.S.

People do not spend time in studying Hongshan and do not have any understanding of tool marks found on authentic pieces, yet they make a lot of interesting comments. To even respond to them, that means I would have to spend time in teaching a lot of things I am not privileged to share. Therefore, just let them express their personal opinons some of which are surely hilarious.

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