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Hello, I recently purchased a few jade pieces at a rural flea market from a man who's father was in WWII. The story he told me is as follows: His father was part of the 1st American Volunteer Group,the military volunteers that went to help the Chinese at the beginning of WWII. America had not yet joined the war so, only military volunteers could go and help the Chinese people that had been cut off from food and supplies. While stationed there (around 1939-1940) his father was fascinated by Chinese artifacts and would trade his food rations and candy bars for jade and other artifacts that had probably been taken from graves. He said his dad would send home boxes of them. These artifacts had been passed down to him and they had been in storage since his father died in 1971. He began selling them off about 1 1/2 ago as, he is 71 years old now and he is using the money for retirement. He provided me with a paper listing his father's deployments and length of stay while in the Air force and military volunteer services.
I bought a few to check out and had no idea how difficult it would be to identify or authenticate them. I did find it interesting that his father was stationed in China about three years after Hongshan was extensively excavated. Any help or information would be gratefully appreciated.

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I just hope you did not pay more than a few dollars for this pig dragon (zhulong). Story like the one you told me always worries me. Are we buying the story or the piece? Your piece here is more than likely a modern Hongshan style piece, probably made in the last decade. You can do a scratch test to see if it may be made of nephrite. The material itself is really not that impressive and the weathering on it is artificial especially those white stuff found on its carving lines, probably treated by limes or acid to make them appear old. Sorry. Not a bad study piece though especially if it was made of nephrite and you did not pay more than a few dollars for it. (*Mind sharing with us how much you paid for it?) Super

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