Featured Hetian Jade Pendant

This is something my wife gave me shortly after we first met, a nice piece of old Ko Lon river Hetian nephrite jade from Xinjiang, China. It has very good natural skin and the jade has an oily fatty quality. I don’t know the exact age of the simple carving but an old carving done without modern tools and the weight of the jade is around 29 grams.

 

Gorgeous carved nephrite jade river pebble, typical of Hetian/Khotan, the best jade region.
This pure shade of white is also typical of the region, and highly sought after. Love the russet skin, all in all a good piece.

Unfortunately jade is notoriously difficult to date, and the style of carving on yours is not restricted to a certain period.
So we only have the cord to go by. My guesstimate is early 20th century, but let's wait for the others.

Some people will tell you jade is only good if it is jadeite and set in gold. Don't listen to them.
Imported jadeite from Myanmar became popular with the rise of the middle class in China because it was more colourful and less expensive than nephrite jade. Although it is very beautiful and versatile, in China jadeite is considered nouveau riche jade.
Nephrite, especially from Hetian/Khotan, is the jade of ancient ritual and imperial items. It is the jade that makes the hearts of scholars and collectors beat faster.

 

You are very knowledgeable I’m impressed, I’m not an expert but have been around a lot of jade and am friends with a lot of jade carvers in different cities across China, Shanghai, Beijing, Nian, Shuzhou and Xinmi mostly a lot of other artists in other cities too but more to do with ceramics.

you would be interested in books written by a life long friend of my wife and a good friend of mine. What she’s written are a dozen books on the Master jade carvers across China, it’s all in Chinese but picture heavy on their work and the finest jades anywhere in a wide variety. I had a website up for a while featuring a lot of their work an pictures of their workshops even shots that show work in progress during various steps.

We’ve also run into counterfeit copies of her books at the jade market for sale and watched the merchant do an about face when she saw the cover picture was the same person as on the book she was selling, lol.

The authors name is Wei Li she is a retired university professor and Travels with us often in China that’s how I’ve become friends with them, they call me older brother. A lot of stories over too much BiJo.

I don’t want to saturate an antiques board with contemporary carvings but I’ll post one of my favorites. this is a spectacular flawless 5 ton crystal saved for him from Brazil, the artist studied the stone for 2 years and under his direction a team of carvers spent 5 years cutting and polishing



I do think there is value in seeing as much different material as you can to get an appreciation of what is good and what to avoid. The streets and gutters around the jade markets where the small factories work are heavily stained with the dies they use treating the stones. As I’m sure you know best jade is always in a back room.

 

I'll see if I can find her books, thank you for the tip.

A stunning piece, Desertau, an impressive true work of art. I can imagine that he studied the stone for a long time first, to see what could be made out of it without cracking. Like a good diamond cutter studies a diamond. And the stone 'spoke' to him.

 

[QUOTE="Any Jewelry, post: 979810

Unfortunately jade is notoriously difficult to date, and the style of carving on yours is not restricted to a certain period.
So we only have the cord to go by. My guesstimate is early 20th century, but let's wait for the others.

The cord is a replacement, my wife was in the jewelry wholesale/retail business for a long time she had a office in San Francisco and an office in Shanghai and connections to factories in China one she has done design work for as well as customers in Europe, she’s also really good stringing pearls and necklace cords an all that kind of stuff… it’s due for another cord, but you are right on the money new cord.

 

Amazon link
https://www.amazon.com/jade-carving...ements=p_27:YU+WEI+LI+BIAN+ZHU&s=books&sr=1-4

 

Thanks for the link. I see there is one that ships from France, which is closer to me. I hope it'll still be there next month, I just spent a fortune on books on ethnic silver.

 

Well..duh. (LOL) I'm as far from a jade expert as you can get but...dang.

 

yes, nephrite is the stuff that dreams are made on. what a lovely post and a great thread. to hold a piece of nephrite jade in your hand is spellbinding and takes us on a journey through time. thanks for the post.

 

that is an awesome gift. and beautifully strung. thank you for posting. cheers.

 

And thank you for your post northbeach. That is such a lovely thing to say, especially from a fellow nephrite lover.