Has anyone bought jade online? I was going to take a shower and i dropped my jade on the tile and it broke -cry2
Sorry for your loss. But be VERY careful. Most, and I mean a LOT, of the supposed "jade" stuff that you see being sold on line are fake (soapstone, serpentine, quartz, aventurine, glass, plastics, etc), so much that ebay even puts out a warning page describing fake jades. Some samples are other materials which have been injected with dyes, and then pressure treated to resemble the coloration of jade. Even if you're HK or other areas "famous" for jade, you still have to be extremely careful, as people will try to rip you off. Further, sellers will try to convince you that they are selling you a lower quality jade, hence the low price. But don't be fooled. Genuine Nephrite (moh's hardness 5.5 - 6.0) and Jadeite (6.5 - 7.0) is really hard to scratch. If you can scratch it with a fingernail (2.5) or an average coin (3.0) then whatever it is, is not jade (FYI the hardest substance is diamond, with a reading of 10). Some sellers will try to slap two bangles together so that you can tell by the "ring" if it is real or not. This is ridiculous and meaningless; unless you've heard real jade being slapped together your whole life, how would you have anything then to compare it? All you will ever hear is an indistinct ding or clink which really tells you nothing. To complicate matters, jades have been faked throughout Chinese history, with clever imitation during one dynasty of the artistry from a period before it. Recreations during Qing times tries to deceive a buyer into believing the article is from Ming or earlier, hence more valuable. You have to know as much about how jade in those days was made (abraded, not carved) and the design types consistent with those times. That is, unless you're a real historian, it's easy to get fooled. (Note: modern jade can be worked with electric grinders, traditional lapidary work required abrasion with sand and water, and a time consuming wearing away process that left tell tale tooling marks. Good counterfeiters even recreate these tooling marks). Here are some good pages on Jades and fakes: http://www.thejaderoad.com/dectectfakejade.html http://www.worthpoint.com/blog-entry/authenticating-ancient-chinese http://jewelry.about.com/cs/jade/a/jade.htm Good luck.
wow .. my mom is shopping for jade recently for the baby .. where's the best or trustworthy place to buy? seriously .. a lot places are really out to get your money for fake .. no expert here so sucks to shop for them. i personally love jade and pearl .. not into diamond and gold .. lol
