This type of object is almost always modern. The surface can be artificially made to look old. They treat them with chemicals etc. Perhaps Mark will add his thoughts as he is well versed in jades, but I would assume this is brand new.

This would need to be seen and handled in person. 

I have no idea what the inscription is or who ordered it etc 

Archaic jade's are not my area. But I am very very cautious when I see perfect curves and circles. 

Mark 

Yes, what I've learned is that you want to look for crystalization in every cut line, otherwise it's likely chemically treated and/or sandblasted. This has the crystalization like you'd want to see, as well as some other indicators like the tiny black spots (iron deposits), and "tomb smell". 

My main concern with the piece is that it's done in relief style. Since this is not a very common style for jade carving, in my opinion that tells me it was done by someone very important during that time, or with modern machines. I've taken a loop to it, and it appears to have the proper cut lines that indicate older tool sets were used to carve it, but I am not an expert. 

The 'relief style' as you put it was used during the 1950's by the communist government to increase profits etc. Also acid etched plaques were very popular. 

The quality of this work was outstanding and not just jade's but also copies of other stuff. There was a special section that dealt with jade's but I can't remember the name and I have lost my reference note books a couple of years ago when I was moving. 

The issues with modem drilling are further combated when such are heavily polished to try to hide said technique. 

However when ones sees perfect circles, perfect curves, crossed lines, stuttered lines then one needs to be very careful. Also the finer details are often overlooked for money reasons. Older carvers took immense pride in their work and would often spend huge amounts of time to create a carving. 

The old polish technique I don't think you can fake. They are using modern polish techniques that are completely different from the older ways. This is very evident when you see new nephrite pieces for sale. 

Crystalization can and has been faked before both on jade's and bronzes. I am not sure about tomb smell. Or even what the smell would be. 

As you know archaic jade's are very sought after and can command huge prices.

I get a lot of people sending me images of archaic jade's to seek my opinion and I nearly always refrain from giving my opinion unless it's obvious because I don't deal with these at all.

This is because it's fairly simple to recreate or copy archaic jade carving like the famous pig style carving. It's much more difficult to recreate or fake later Ming or Qing jade's. This of course is just my opinion.

The plaque that you have posted is very nice looking but I am not convinced it's old. But that's just my gut feeling when I first saw the post. 

Sorry for the long response.

Mark 

@imperialfinegems I appreciate the insight and detailed response. You mentioned that the 'old polish technique' is more difficult to fake. What should I look at to get a better idea if it's an older technique or a newer one for polishing?

The piece is extremely well carved & polished. I've done countless searches and whatnot for similar pieces, fakes, ect, and haven't found a single one. So one thing I'm confident on is that it's certainly unique. 

In regards to the "tomb smell", it basically means the jade has a bad odor, and implies it was burried with a person.

If jade has such tomb smell, it would imply it to be as old or older than the Han dynasty based on what I've seen online (~200 BC or older).

Yes Brian I agree with you that is very well carved. 

To determine the polish technique is difficult to explain. 

One way that the old traders used to do was spit on the jade and see if there finger moved easily over the wet part with applied pressure. According to them the newer jade's would be more difficult to do this than the old jades.

Newer jades have a very shiny appearance. Older do not have the same shiny look. More of a subdued look. 

If this makes sense to you. 

I am sure you as a jade collector have seen this difference over the years. 

Mark 

@imperialfinegems Yes, that makes total sense. I have some immitation archaic jade pieces that are noticeably harder to move a wet finger across than this tablet in discussion. The immitation pieces also don't have the bad odor I mentioned and are more shiny.

My guess as to why the finger trick is used may be is because archaic nephrite has had more time to absorb matter, and "smooth" out so to speak. I imagine similar to plugging a bunch of tiny holes so that when a when your finger slides across it, it's essentially gliding on the plugged surface. 

Is there anyone you'd reccommend I have look at it in person? It sounds like that would be the only way to tell for sure if it's archaic or not 

I assume that you are in the USA?

Unfortunately not. The only person that I used was Sam Bernstein from time to time. But unfortunately he passed away a few years ago from Covid. 

There is another member here but I can't remember his user name.

It's a complicated area of collecting. More so than porcelain and definitely more problematic with archaic jade's. 

You could try the major auction rooms. But that's more of a hit and miss scenario. 

Perhaps if others remember him. He did not post often etc. 

Sorry again that I couldn't be of help. 

Mark 

Oh, Brian you know the lick the jade or lick your finger technique. That's great. 

Not many people do actually know this technique as the older jade dealers are long gone. 

Mark 

Yes, I'm in the DC area. Ah ok, bummer. It's exceedingly difficult to find an expert for archaic jade. I've tried a local museum and Bonhams, but neither were responsive.

Thank you for your input & time, I appreciate it. 

@soccertechie we have a forum member who lives in the DC area. Perhaps he can recommend someone for you. I'll ask him.

@johnshoe thank you very much 🙂

@soccertechie 

Hi Brian,

John reached out to me, sorry it took a few days to pop on here. I'm in Bethesda used to work in Georgetown, so right up the road. 

I am curious if you purchased this from a dealer in this area, because from where I sit, there are zero dealers here that I would purchase such a thing from.  There are dealers who would inadvertently sell you this but not one with the knowledge to sell you this.  I won't name and shame anyone in particular on the forum, though I have commented in the past, but there are quite a few dealers here that are importing fakes, very good ones and selling them to the upscale clientele.. this area has a ton of targets. 

Coincidentally i have recently come across a possibly neolithic jade in a very unexpected spot, and after reaching out to a few people, they all had to reach out to people much further away, and even then I was told, though it looks very promising it is a hands on thing, and even then hard to authenticate.  with no real provenance  my contact at sotheby's won't touch it, but even says it looks possibly legit.

All this to say, there are folks to ask, but not really locally.  as for the authenticity, my piece is like one in many millions of a chance of legitimacy, and is cracked and small.  Yours looks very large, and in very good condition, what are those odds.... slim.  Still looks like a fascinating piece.

Feel free to reach out, I can always put you in touch with a couple people or ask them to reach out to you or whatever works, there are very few people I actually trust to be straight shooters in general, and here there are maybe a handful.  also if you want suggestions where to buy locally I can always advise.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Email: [email protected]

Hi Jeremy, thanks for the reply, and nice you're not too far away 🙂

I purchased this from a dealer based out of NY. The dealer said I can return it any time if it doesn't turn out to be legit. I feel your pain on finding someone you can trust their opinion on for such things. I've rarely ever purchased from folks around this area for jade. 

It's always exciting when you stumble upon a potential authentic piece. Most of the potential pieces I've seen are small like the one you mentioned. I'm just struggling to find anyone that can truly authenticate it. I've talked to 5 or so experts now, and none of them are confident enough to date it. 

I'll shoot you an email shortly with my contact info.