Exotic Jades

How to Identify Jade Artifacts Without Unearth Report?

–By Mitchell Chen
It is believed that the quantity of jade artifacts without unearth report is far greater than those of with unearth report. As a result, to identify jade artifacts without unearth report is more important than to identify those with unearth report as well as is more difficult. Fortunately, modern technologies are available to make jade artifacts identification as accurate as possible. In this aspect, reference method seems appropriate.

The reference method may be described as follows: Firstly, we select a referral jade artifact with unearth report which was designated as a particular period such Han Dynasty. Secondly, we list all the referral item’s attributes of antiquity phenomena due to chemical and physical factors( cleaving veins, differentail weathering, diffusive markings, additive crystals, crystal planes and dissolved pits), the attributes of motifs( for example, the detailness of dragon) of that particular period and the attributes of craftsmanship due to carving, hole drilling( for example, the ChiChia Culture jade artifacts are characterized by the one direction drilling, ) and formation of lines( for example, the lines on the Hongshan Culture artifacts are usually seen round smooth channel, ). Thirdly, we repeat the work for the item to be identified. Lastly, we map the attributes of the item to be identified to those of the item referred. If we end up with all the attributes matched, then we can infer that the item to be identified should be from the same period of the item referred. If 90% of the attributes matched, then we can infer that the item to identified has a probability of 90% from the same period of the item referred. Generally speaking, at least 70% is required to be confident that the item to be identified should be from the period of the item referred.

If the period of the jade artifact to be identified has no reference jade artifact with unearth report, then we may search artifacts of different material such as bronze to find clues such inscriptions to make the comparion. For example, we have applied this method for the identification of the Shin dynasty (AD. 8-25) Octagon-shape Jade Container with Dragon and Phoenix Motif and Inscriptions. For seal, the identification should be based on the inscripts on the base and the style of the dragon. To use the carving workmanship as a basis of identification is weak in logic.
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