Topic: Well it is Halloween!!

[dirk.]

he´s selling these dishes regularly, which makes me think they are rather recent
and he´s kind of importing them from tibet. the serpentine vessel varies in colour.

perhaps you should consider to take your ´glas´ to a mineral store. there are other
possibilities than serpentine - from soapstone to jade...

[lyndhurst44]

Dirk,
This one has real age to it, the ware to the base mark shows it has been cleaned for many years.
Martyn,
I tried your test and it did leave a white line, but I also did the same to an old soapstone figure i had and that also left a similar line. In saying that I think it has been more or less proved now that it isn't made of glass.
Thanks for your efforts,
Bryn

[Bernard C]

Could be horn, possibly yak's horn, as I recall reading somewhere that nothing was wasted when a yak was slaughtered.

Bernard C. 

[dirk.]

Bryn, you´re right - yours looks much older and much better elaborated.

just one further thought: could that skeleton thingy be a stylized animal
and a chinese letter at the same time?
don´t know, if there are any chinese letters that symmetrical.

[Pip]

I'm sure this is a complete irrelevance but the animal decoration thing reminds me a little of the Nazca lines in Peru...

[krsilber]

I was thinking the same thing as Pip (and also thought it probably irrelevant, but it's interesting that it occurred to us both).  Peru has a large Chinese population, too. 

That's a strange looking rock, if that's what it is!  It also occurred to me that the Chinese are pretty good at making fake rock.  The "scratch test" does seem to rule out glass, but my dad has a quite realistic piece of "amber" made out of some kind of epoxy resin or something.

Interesting that the green seems to bulge out a little around the middle horizontal metal band, similar to the way blown glass bulges out around a metal frame.

[Mosquito]

Base mark reads 'Long Zhi' (thanks to my OH, Zhang Jie), probably a part 'Qianlong Nian Zhi' seal mark (meaning Qianlong period made) but this is looks to be a twentieth century piece. The stylised animal/ skeleton design could be a Character but if so it is in an archaic style and neither of us recognise it.

Steven

[lyndhurst44]

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in replying, i was away from home for most of yesterday and did not get the usual email reminder.
Thanks for all your suggestions, especially the translation. I spoke to my antique dealer friend who discribed it as being fronm the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century, Chinese, and probably made frome Jadeite.
Bryn.

[krsilber]

I'm sorry, this thing is kind of nagging at me.  I'm not quite convinced this is jadeite, or any kind of stone.  How hard was it to scratch, and what did you use?  Jadeite's pretty hard.  And the banding seems pretty funky.

If you have a chance, could you show a photo of the inside, facing toward the little guy on the front (so you see the back of that area)?

A big part of the reason I'm suspicious is that the Chinese make so much fake old stuff.  I mean, it says it's from the Qianlong Dynasty!  And they make tons of "Tibetan" stuff.  Like here's a "Tibetan" bronze urn that I bet you anything was made in China within the last five years.  Same seller has a bunch of silver and jade stuff, and I really highly doubt it's jade.

The serpentine bowl from German ebay - that's a huge chunk of very uniformly colored serpentine - not!  I don't believe it for a second.

I'm into rocks, you see, so this thing has me pretty curious.

[lyndhurst44]

Hi Kristi,
I'll get a photo done for you in te morning. I just returned from the hospital having where I enjoyed an injecion in my only good eye!!! having suffered a nasty old infection.Those doctors really know how to make you feel worse!!Not recommended.
I used an old needle to scratch the inner surface of the goblet? but the antique guy took a scissers point to it and it left a fair old white mark, which completely disappeared when he wiped it with a damp cloth.
The little guy appears on both sides of item, in fact the other side still he retains a bit of a silver shine.
The base really looks as if it has been over rubbed, but it does seem strange why that area is had the treatment because it would have been out of sight anyway.
Anyway I will get back to you in the morning. Please excuse any bad grammer as my vision is not too good hopefully it will be better tomorrow.
Cheers,
Bryn