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Hi, All.
This is another family piece, a little stone snuff bottle that I retrieved last month when I went to Texas. My father found it in an antique shop in Mexico in the late 1960's or 1970's and was convinced it was jade. It looks like white jade, but I am not sure if it is. It is nicely carved, and is well-hollowed (look at the photo where you can see the spoon through the walls of the piece). The inside is ground and the outside polished, with nice mask and ring handles. The lid is red glass and the spoon, bone.
It looks great to be jade to me, and even to be potentially 19th century, but for one thing. When I hold it up to the light, I see a pattern in the stone, a kind of mosaic-like partitioning of the stone. This pattern is typical of botryoidal ("bubbly"-looking) chalcedony--I have included a picture of chalcedony to show it this pattern. It is a texture that can occur in any fibrous mineral; the "bubbles" in the chalcedony represent areas of radiating fibrous crystals of quartz, and each of the mosaic-like patches visible when the stone is cut, represents a different radiating clump of fibers. Nephrite can occur in fibrous masses, and could potentially show this texture--but I can't find any discussion of it online; is this pattern known in jade? It is common in chalcedony, and that is the problem. Is this jade or white chalcedony imitating jade?
Also, any thoughts on age? I am asking Peter, but thought I might ask your opinion.
Unfortunately, my brother DROPPED this snuff bottle taking it out of the display cabinet, and it fell on a tile floor and cracked! (It also popped off the stand, that it had been glued to, but that doesn't bother me). You can see the star crack in one shoulder of the bottle. It survived decades to hundreds of years (maybe you can tell me), but did not survive my brother! SIGH. Oh, well. I wasn't going to sell it anyway.
Charles
Dear Charles, you have a nice, old bottle there.
It is calcedony, agate if you wish, not jade. I have never seen a jade bottle with the botryoidal pattern.
What a pity for the damage. Incidentally, jade is hard to crack.
It is surely old, although it is difficult to precisely date this kind of bottles. Even the big auction houses provide a wide time span for them, late 18th – early 20th century. It must be 19th century in my opinion, but can’t say if early or late.
It has an added bonus, a nice, old spoon/stopper, which too is rarely found, especially if contemporary to the bottle, as your one looks to be. I think that the stopper should be glass, imitating agate.
Worth to keep, regardless the damage.
Regards,
Giovanni
Dear Charles,
Nice snuff bottle you have posted.
In my opinion it's chalcedony and not nephrite jade. The inner structure is unique to this agate family. To confirm you would need to perform a specific gravity test. Chalcedony sg is 2.59-2.61. Nephrite is 2.95.
Chalcedony is a hardstone. It measures about 7 on the Mohs hardness. Whereas nephrite is about 6. Jadeite jade is about 6.5.
Mark
Dear Giovanni,
I see we posted at the same time. 👋😁
Nephrite jade and jadeite jade can easily crack if dropped on a hard surface. Depending on the angle it hits.
Mark
Dear Mark, of course it depends from the shape of the object. I am not a mineralogist, but I have read that the structure of the jade is of crossed fibers and hence less prone to crack.
But you are much more expert on jade than me.
Regards,
Giovanni
Hi Giovanni,
You may have heard about people who wear imperial/other jadeite bangles. They sometimes fall or slip over smashing/cracking the bangle into one or more pieces without injuring themselves.
Apparantly it's good luck. I have done this myself about 9 years. Cracked a imperial jadeite piece in half by dropping it on concrete. That incident cost me 70k.
Nephrite and jadeite will often crack in one or more areas depending on the structure of the piece ie bangle/other. It will however not shatter into pieces.
Dyed jades can and often do shatter when dropped onto a hard surface.
Mark
Thanks, Giovanni and Mark. You are confirming my suspicions! As I said, it is a family piece, and is a lot nicer than any of my collection of mid-late 20th century snuff bottles, so it will occupy a a prominent place in my display cabinet...
Charles
Hi, All.
Just to follow up, Peter agreed it is chalcedony, 19th century, worth $125-175 because of the crack.
Charles
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