Topic: Can anyone id this piece please

[seanduxbury]

Hi.  This is my first venture into the world of paperweights so hopefully I'll give all the details everyone will need to maybe id this piece.  Found in a charity shop in the north of England, I just picked this up because it looked 'interesting'.  I think it could be a modern piece and is possibly from the Eastern Hemisphere but that is simply a guess because of the decoration.   It has an etched Monkey, flowers and some characters  on the back of the piece which are 'reflected' when you look through the faceted front side.  The way the piece has been made also 'refracts' colours that shine through the entire piece.  I don't think the etching is precise enough to be laser etched but am more than happy to be corrected on that point.  I'm afraid no marks, labels or anything as far as I can see to give any clues to origin.  It measures 9 cms tall x 5 cms in diameter at the base and weighs just over 250 gms.  I've not included an image of the base as there is a piece of green felt that could be original or could have been added at any time, so unless someone advises to take it off I'll leave it attached.  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks

[Mosquito]

Definitely Chinese. The character ‘猴’ unsurprisingly means 'monkey'. This is a typical gift item to celebrate the year of the monkey. This year is the monkey year so it's probably pretty new though it could also perhaps have been made for 2004.

[seanduxbury]

Thanks.  I think I suspected as much.  From the research I've done I believe (but could be completely wrong on this) that the 'refracted' type of paperweight is an indication that they are modern i.e. post 2000.  Still as said interesting and not an expensive lesson.