Discussion For Jade and Stone Artifacts
JADE
and
STONE ARTIFACTS
Late Neolithic, Yellow Nephrite, ‘C’ Dragon
While this fine world of ours is ripe with genuine Jade – Jadeite and other Stone Artifacts it is our desire to start a general discussion in this category where both professionals (those who pursue their passion for money and love) and amateurs (those who work for the love of it only) can meet and discuss various attributes, ask questions, exchange theories and share knowledge in a meeting venue that respects all opinions and tolerates no abusive behavior.
During the past year I have been asked to authenticate well in excess of 2,000 jade, jadeite and stone “artifacts” from China, Mesoamerica and literally all portions of the globe. Of the approximately 2,000 stone artifacts the people asking always had a story attached to the piece or pieces and most of the people believed their stone pieces were genuine for the ‘big three’ reasons. 1) They had paid for them. 2) The items involved all had at least some characteristics of the ‘mother culture’. 3) They all came with these wonderful stories of how, where and when they were supposed to have been found. It has been in the stories where I get my greatest enjoyment. Stories of intrigue and danger. Stories of supernatural nature and amazing finds that worked their way through ‘friends of friends’ and stories of ’saving these precious items from certain destruction right from under the nose of no less than the “Red Army Officials” themselves and smuggled through dangerous border passes and right under the nose of the top customs officials in the world. So forgetting the fact that over 98% of what I have been asked to verify are just common tourist items for sale at all the border shops or purchased on eBay (who are somehow above the laws where the UNESCO treaties are concerned) and sell for $0.99 to $50.00 plus shipping and then re-sold by these wonderful story telling dealers. First advice – Let the stories go in one ear and out the other, as the piece will always tell you whether it is real or not, assuming you really want to know the truth. Second advice – is to do a bit of investigation by reading the appropriate and abundant literature (not that there are not fakes clearly shown in some of the most famous books in the world and are even on display in some of its finest museums), but it has always been a ‘odds’ game for all true collectors and what one wants to do is shorten the odds into ones own favor and instead of getting 2 out 100 genuine, start upping your odds to at least the 50% range. This is done with study and common sense and not by listening to stories of how ‘real’ Tibetan dZi beads were really only made of Brazilian agate.
Do not forget that famous story…..only “True” Dzi beads have no ancient drill/tooling marks as they were all drilled by Aliens who left no traces of drilling marks and flew the beads from Brazil to Tibet in flying saucers…….
Please forgive the absence of material in this section and expect it to very soon take off in the right direction. I have been involved heavily in the getting the basic research and photography finished for the Pseudomorph discussion and with that section now up and running we intend to train the microscope on some extremely interesting examples of archaic jades with the emphasis towards new discoveries on the authentication arts of real versus reproduction. These articles will start to appear approximately one week from today. Thank you for your patience.