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Sorry about the horrible picture. My camera just isn't any good. The hairpin was bought in Hong Kong during the 70's at a store called Tse Lee Yuen. Question is:

1) is it nephrite or jadeit or neither?
2) I have cleaned it with soapy water but there are some white encrustation that couldn't be removed. Can anything be done about it?

The background is actually a white piece of copy paper and the Kodak label is there for color reference. The hairpin is actually white with green intrusion. Thank you for your attention!

That somehow looks like 2 hairpins, The first picture shows a nicely shaped Jadeite pin, while the second picture shows the same(?) pin with an ear cleaner.
Ernest

Correction
Ear cleaner = ear spoon.
Ernest

Myanmar Jade, you can compare them with yours.

Ernest, it is the same hairpin! That part does look like ear spoon but it is a little too thick to do the job xD...The top part is either meant to be a ruyi or a linchi (sp?) somehow ending up in a earspoon shape.

Tracy, the links to the photos are broken but it would seem that it is jadeit then..

thank you all!

I have tried to take another picture, this time with no flash. The details on the front didn't came out, but the back is much clearer. Please help me look at the yellowish-white stuff at the back of the hairpin! Thanks.

Dear Wei

The green patches were dyed, the white encrustation comes with the original stone.

They are 20th century modern made jadeite.

The ear spoon serves no fuction to pick ear wax, the sword guard will hurt your ears. It's possibly for picking/cleaning tar from the opium pipe (women smoke opium, too),and it's not long enough for snuff bottle.

Have fun
Anita Mui

Thanks Anita! It makes sense. I thought the "spoon" could have meant for a gem inlaid or something but then they would have made it round, wouldn't they?? But opium spoon, yikes...a little bit too decadent for my taste. Just so that in the future I can tell the difference between dyed jade and naturual jade, what gave this piece away??

A friend suggested that it might have been made for scooping ground pearl powder and that the angle and width of the pin makes it much less useful for cleaning pipes. I hope that it is not some type of drug paraphernalia, it just freaks me out to think of that...

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