Featured Du Long Yu a new jade in China

Our friends are excited about a new carving stone that looks just like high quality Jadeite, in the west we only accept jadeite and nephrite as true jade but in China the word for Jade (Yu) has a more general meaning describing the value, beauty and qualities of these stones every beautiful carving stone is called YU preceded by a descriptor of where it is from Xinjiang Yu, Dushan Yu, Xinmi Yu and so and so forth.

this new find Du Long Yu (something Dragon Jade) my wife wasn’t sure the meaning of Du in this context, is a Quartz based stone with other minerals was found in China near Miramar in 2020 visually it looks like very high quality Jadeite, the cost is lower now as they try to understand the market but very popular locally and prices are expected to rise as available quantities are established.

This new contender brings a beautiful alternative to Jadeite and new confusion identifying it from Jadeite.

the rough stone image with gold colored inclusions, those inclusions are pyrite.

 

how is this a good thing?

Wont the stone get passed off as jade....for the price of jade.....once on the secondary market..?

 

It will certainly add confusion and knowing your sources I’d imagine will be important. The up side is a much lower cost alternative so price should be a guide. Similar jadeite bangles and pendants sell for the price of the average US home and up so the risk is mainly in the very high end market where buyers have more resources to determine authenticity.

 

Plenty of buyers are fooled now buying treated jadeite sold as A grade, we have a friend with one such example a huge thick bangle my wife is pretty sure is treated she paid many times too much for, the risk is not new.

 

This is a “new jade” a quartz based material that has been on the market for a long time mined in XinMi, China that looks very much like nephrite. But I’m not aware of any wide spread abuses.

 

As nice the stone is, as frightening it is for jadeite amateurs-buyers
You have already, as you said, many sellers selling heavily treated jadeite as A grade.
As a jadeite lover, I only buy old pieces, (jewellery not carvings) and usually can spot bad from good in beads or bangles from pics. I buy only from EBay, vintage antiques and avoid Chinese sellers (sorry for your relatives) because of their "AAA+++ genuine" descriptions
I had great successes till now and I don't despair to find one day the Mdivani imperial jade sister

 

I think this thread serves as a warning for buyers out there. So thank you for posting it.

I may have a chunk of that stone, only mine is Australian, bought there in the early 70s.

Ditto.

Ditto. That goes for their 'antiques' too.

 

Not my relatives so no worry there, my wife got a message yesterday from a carving friend telling her about this discovery this is very new news. I tried googling this stone and no hits at all so good or bad everyone here is hearing about this before most of the world I think if not for our friend and a lot of coincidences none of us would know for some time possibly.

I don’t have any idea of where prices will go but based on other similar new jades the price on this may be high enough there is no issue with wide spread deception, and like CZs it might not be that complicated identifying this from jadeite, there may be tests available already but for now you know just about everything I know about this stuff.

I do have a little more information from a Chinese posting sent with these images but was having trouble copy and pasting across devices. I retype the other key points on chemical make up later if you are interested the article was more a direct comparison of another jade im unfamiliar with the name in the article.

 

Our friend (s) not one of the dealers you need to be concerned with they work only in the finest quality jade, the cost of carving is generally equal the the raw material the white Hetian jade runs $1000 per gram and they carve millions of dollars worth every year, the treated jades and Russian jade sold as Hetian jade is not a new problem but anyone unfamiliar with jade should be cautious. Ive previously mentioned the jade market in Nian there are streets where the gutters and walkways are stained orange/brown from the run off of dye used to give marble and Russian nephrite skin and large bins filled to the brim with marble blanks and marble bangles. This is just a part of the industry and has been for longer than I have been of this earth and we’ve navigated the quagmire so far, this will probably be no different I think most here would be surprised at the diversity of new jades on the market.

remember too the concept of jadeite and nephrite is a western interpretation of what jade is and the Chinese word used to describe it. When I first traveled to China and began learning about dushan jade and XinMi jade I questioned it being jade, my question in China was simply nonsense because the word jade is generic for a beautiful stone or valuable stone, each type has its own descriptive word along with the Chinese word “Yu” there is no deception because everyone there understands the differences.

I’m afraid some of this may be confusing because my writing style can be a little disorganized sometimes.

 

For sure, Chinese have a culture of jade and stone carvings us Westerners don't have, going strictly about the mineralogy specifics when it comes to call jade "JADE"
Thanks again for sharing, and eventually updating when you'll get new infos about this stone. I'm particularly interested in physical properties of it ie volumetric mass, hardness (though as you said it is in the quartz family, it must have the same hardness...).
Keep on!

 

Ok, this is the info now you know everything I do

 

Yes, I know that includes turquoise, carnelian, rosequartz and other Chinese favourites as well. All beautiful stones which I love and value too.
But I live in Europe, not in China, and I have to go by Western terms and standards.

Jade is not exclusively Chinese. It is mined all over the world, also in Europe (Italy etc).
In New Zealand nephrite jade is called Pounamu, but I don't see the Chinese changing their concept of (nephrite) jade to the Maori one. Local is local, and international is international.
So because it is an internationally found stone, it is best to use the international consensus, which is jadeite and nephrite. And since I am not Chinese, that is what I will call them.

 

Any jewelry you are more knowledgeable on jade than I am, I just find myself by circumstance with unusual access, if you ever plan on traveling to China PM me maybe I can open a door or two for you.

 

I introduced a couple online friends involved in jade one from Canada he organizes the world jade symposium I think it’s called the other from England studying carving in China. The Canada friend was looking for a source of carving jade for the symposium. Because of that meeting the friend from England wound up on some CCTV program gaining some notoriety in China my wife told me.

 

I try not to buy anything expensive from China-re the antiquities/collectibles market.It's a scammy mess too dangerous for any layman to even begin spending serious money on.
I approach 99.999% of Chinese goods offered online as counterfeits.

 

Very kind of you. Unfortunately my traveling days are long gone, but reading about your travels and adventures is a delight.

 

I’m also careful like you if I don’t know what it is i better really like it and it better be cheep. learning about a lot of things I don’t need and have a better idea on value I’m handing a lot of this off to my neighbors they have a large booth in a local antique mall and we’ll do a split.

 

Well the Du Long Yu was a little more controversial than I anticipated, but I certainly can see the concerns.

Here is another new jade carved by Zhang Kerzow, I don’t know where it’s from or what it is, but I don’t think there is even a remote chance it can be confused with anything else, this stone is called plum blossom jade. I don’t have a clue on what it costs these tea cups were a gift from the artist.

 

Desert-I love Japanese & Chinese art & artifacts new or old.With the Chinese items many of the artists don't seem to see any need to mark an item as a reproduction.Their philosophy may regard a beautiful piece as timeless,whether done yesterday or a millennium ago.
Of course there are dealers who also deliberately traffic in fake antiquities,selling forgeries as antiques.
I'm happy to buy a gorgeously crafted repro-but marked as such.

 

You’re wise to be careful people can be… hmmm just always be careful. I mentioned to my wife the concerns here about this new jades potential to deceive and she agrees there is no way to control the secondary market.

We only use knowledgeable trusted friends the advantage that comes with is friend priceing.