1. Burmese jade, also known as jadeite, was once popular in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China: for example, a jade tube by Rong Lu, the interior minister of the Qing Dynasty, was worth 13000 taels of gold. In the mid-1930s, Wang Tie Yuting in Beijing had a bracelet, which was sold to Du in Shanghai for 40,000 silver dollars. Myanmar jadeite is bright and clean because of its high hardness. Moreover, good jadeite is bright and peaceful in color and has high preservation and collection value, so it is called "the king of jade". It is loved by many people who love and wear jade. Japan and New Zealand also regard jade as their "national stone". Due to the special geographical relationship that jadeite is produced in Qingdian, near China, and most of the finished products are processed in China, and the special preference of China people for jadeite, western countries generally consider jadeite as the "national jade" of China.
Second, the color of Burmese jadeite. ?
Due to different regional customs, the color of Burmese jadeite is slightly different. In the jade kingdom of Myanmar, jadeite can be divided into three categories, with a grade of 12. The domestic jewelry industry divides jadeite into more than 30 grades according to its color. Generally speaking, the tone of Burmese jade can be roughly divided into the following six types:
1, white, basically contains no other impurity elements.
2, red, containing chemical element iron < FC3+ >.
3, green, containing more than 2% chromium < Cr >.
4. Black, containing more than 2% of 〈Cr〉 and Fe < Fe2+ >.
5, yellow, containing tantalum.
6. Purple, containing elements < iron > chromium, iron, iron and cobalt.
In particular, the green color in Burmese jade can be worn regardless of status, status, age and gender, except for its bright color and excellent durability. Therefore, it conforms to the implicit, peaceful, Wen Ya and cordial character of China people. The social demand is growing day by day. Prices have also doubled or even hundredfold. At present, the price of a jade bracelet in the international market has reached 10 million yuan. Even Myanmar jadeite ornaments with slightly inferior jadeite color are expensive as long as they are genuine A goods with sufficient water head, clear technology and harmonious colors.
3. Myanmar jades on the market and their simple identification. ?
No matter from the mineral resources or mining capacity of Burmese jade, good jadeite is very limited, so some speculators and mercenary businessmen "take advantage of it". A large number of fakes, selling fakes, and profiting from them. Even in the emerald kingdom of Myanmar, fakes can be seen everywhere. Fake stones and ornaments can be seen everywhere. At present, there are four kinds of Burmese jade popular in the market, according to the level of authenticity:
Grade A goods are not only natural in texture, but also natural in color. Identification methods mainly focus on the following three points.
(1) Look before you leap. Because of the relationship between mineral resources and exploitation and the specific situation of people's large demand. At present, there are few good Burmese jadeites on the market. In particular, there are few varieties with green color and bright ground color. ?
(2) Generally, varieties such as Mabel Miao, spinach green, scarlet or violet floating flowers are common. ?
(3) Observed by naked eyes under the light, the texture is delicate, the color is soft and the stone lines are obvious; Slight impact, crisp and pleasant voice; Holding it in your hand has a heavy feeling, which is obviously different from other parts of the stone.
For grade B jadeite, commonly known as "dirty" jadeite with black spots, it is immersed in strong acid for corrosion to remove "dirty" and "cotton" to increase transparency, and then epoxy resin or substitute filler is injected into the microcracks caused by strong acid corrosion with high pressure to fill and consolidate the cracks. ?
(1) The color of B goods was good at first. If you look closely, the color will become evil. If you look at it under a lamp, the color transparency will be weakened.
(2) Within two years, B goods gradually lost their luster, were full of cracks and became ugly. This is caused by the strong acid destroying its original quality. ?
(3) The density is reduced and the weight is reduced. Slight impact, low voice, lost the crisp sound of a cargo.
Class c goods, completely artificially colored. ?
(1) At first glance, the color is not right and evil. ?
(2) Looking closely under the lamp, the color does not naturally exist in jadeite crystals, but is filled in the cracks of minerals, showing a network distribution of colorless roots. ?
(3) Observing with Charles filter, the green color becomes red or colorless. ?
(4) The surface color can be removed by scrubbing with powerful decoloring agent or turned brown.
D goods, D goods pretending to be jade ornaments mainly have the following two categories. ?
(1) jade. That is, other jadeites pretend to be jadeites. There are mainly Thai jadeite and Malaysian jadeite, Nanyang dushan jade, Qinghai jadeite, Miyu, Australian jadeite and Dongling stone. The differences between the jadeite mentioned above and Burmese jadeite are as follows: First, the hardness is low; Second, low density (light weight) and weak luster. ?
(2) Green glass and green plastic. Most of these substitutes are dull and ugly, and their luster is very weak. The relative density is very light, the hardness is low (it can be carved with nails), and there is no cold feeling.
The above methods are just my experience and understanding, and it really depends on science and technology and advanced technology to accurately identify them. Such as high magnification observation, measurement of density and thermal conductivity, infrared spectrum Raman test, etc.
China has a long history of using jade. There were very decent jade articles about 7,000 years ago. About five thousand years ago, there was a craze for using jade articles. Various dynasties after the Neolithic Age produced and used a large number of jade articles. Jade is different from metal products and ceramics. It is more durable and cannot be melted and transformed. Therefore, some jades made by the ancients were buried underground, some disappeared naturally, and a large part of them were handed down to the world and became people's collections. In China, the culture of collecting ancient jade is extremely prosperous, and there are many people who collect ancient jade.
To collect a jade article, we must first know its manufacturing age, and then its material, technological level and use. Among them, it is the most difficult to know the manufacturing age of jade articles.
There are several aspects of knowledge to identify ancient jade, first of all, we must understand the decorative patterns of jade in past dynasties. This requires going to the museum to observe the exhibits and often looking through related jade albums. If you read more, you will feel that the characteristics of jade articles in past dynasties are different, and they are divided into different types according to different times. The more careful you observe, the more characteristics of the times you master and the stronger your recognition ability. If a piece of jade originally belonged to Shang dynasty, but the pattern has some characteristics of Warring States, then this piece of jade belongs to old jade, or later antique products. If you judge that this jade is a fake ancient jade made of antique, you can also judge its manufacturing age. Generally speaking, the imitation of Shang Yu appeared very late, mostly in the late Qing Dynasty.
Second, we should understand the shape characteristics of jade articles in past dynasties. This is because the shapes of many jade articles change with the times. For example, most of the jade cups in the Han Dynasty are thin and tall, while those in the Tang Dynasty are short and wide, which is completely different from the style in the Han Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the cup shape changed again. It is often judged by the shape characteristics of a jade article that it is a work of which era. The deeper you know about the shape characteristics of ancient jade, the stronger your ability to identify ancient jade. For example, imitations of Yu Ge in Shang Dynasty can often be seen in the second-hand market at present. These jade brothers are similar in shape to Shang Dynasty works, but they are often thicker than Shang Dynasty jade brothers and have no characteristics of Shang Dynasty works, so they can be regarded as imitations.
Third, we should understand the processing characteristics of jade articles in different times. These characteristics are mainly manifested in the aspects of opening, drilling, ornamentation and surface gloss treatment. In the Neolithic age, wire cutting technology appeared in jade manufacturing, and there were often traces of wire cutting on jade. If there are traces of wire cuts on a jade article, the age of this jade article can be preliminarily determined as Neolithic Age. There are many holes in ancient jade articles, and the drilling technology has changed with the times. Before the Shang Dynasty, the diameter of jades varied greatly, either large at both ends and small in the middle, or large at one end and small at the other. This kind of hole also appears in modern ancient jade, but it is different from ancient jade in the shape of the hole and the luster of the inner wall. After the Zhou Dynasty, some jades had characteristic boreholes, but the differences were very subtle, which could only be distinguished by careful observation. In terms of decorative carving methods and surface gloss treatment, jade articles in past dynasties are also different. For example, many jade articles in the Warring States and the Ming and Qing Dynasties still have glass luster, but the jade articles in the Warring States are shiny and meaningful; Jade articles in Ming dynasty are bright and hard; Jade articles in Qing dynasty are slippery and soft.
The fourth is to distinguish between new jade and old jade. On the one hand, it depends on the knife work (scar) when making, on the other hand, it depends on the corrosion degree of jade surface and the color of jade. An ancient jade may have other colors besides the color of the jade itself, mainly plate color and Qin color. Disk color is the color change produced by grinding jade in hands, which mainly appears in handed down jade. Some jades are not buried in the soil after being made, and their colors will change after being touched for a long time during the handed down process. Some people call it "cooked" and "cooked pit". Some jadeites will become "cooked pit" jadeites after being buried and discolored.
The Qin color of jade will change after burial, which is very complicated. Some jadeites have it, and some don't. Some jade is completely discolored by Qin, and some jade is partially discolored; Some are known by what substance, and some are unclear. The ancients had many names for the Qin color of jade. In the Ming Dynasty, Cao Zhao wrote "On Gegu": "Those who are as red as blood are called blood jade, and the ancients also called them ancient corpses ... those who are blackened, ancient canals and ancient treasures have low prices. Taste the loess on the jade chain and it won't wash off. This ancient soil is also. " The ancients said that there are thirteen colors of ancient jade. The colors of ancient jade recorded in Jade Records in Qing Dynasty are cinnabar red, chicken blood red, brown purple, tomato skin purple, Song Hualv, ginkgo green, okra yellow, old wine yellow, fish-belly white, brown rice white, shrimp green, snot green, rain blue, pond water pale and so on. There are many other sayings about the color of jade.
We can see the piano colors of many ancient jade, mainly black, called mercury piano; Green, called Tongqin; Ochre brown, called rust ooze; As white as fog, it is called water; Dark yellow, called Tuqin. It is observed that copper ooze, rust ooze, water ooze and soil ooze are indeed related to copper, iron, water and soil, and are caused by the erosion of copper, iron, water and soil.
Artificial dyeing of jade has a very long history. The ancients dyed jade mainly to make up for the lack of jade quality and make jade more glorious. With the increase of ancient jade collectors and the expansion of ancient jade market, dyeing jade has become an important method to imitate ancient jade and make fake antiques. The old methods of dyeing jade are different in different periods, and the color of dyed jade is also different. Dyeing jade and doing old things can be divided into three stages before and after the Qing Dynasty. People who are familiar with the color and dyeing of jadeite can often have a rough judgment on the manufacturing age of the work by looking at the dyeing on jadeite. At present, we don't fully understand the old dyeing of jade articles before the Qing Dynasty, but the antique works of the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Forbidden City in Taipei all have certain collections, and we can understand their characteristics as long as we often look at the exhibits. Modern jades often pursue the effect of ancient jade, sometimes they are similar, but there are always differences. If you get an ancient jade whose owner's color is different from the color of the standard works we know, we should carefully analyze whether this color is the color of ancient jade that we don't know, or whether it is artificially made, so as to judge the old and new works.
How to identify fake jade
Although the fake jade of the counterfeiter is very similar to jade, if you look closely, it is all eye-catching. Compared with real jade, fake jade has tiny flying feet on its surface, which is not moistened for a long time, and it is brittle no matter how it is rubbed manually.
The fake jade that the stone pretends to be is similar to jade at first glance, but it is not moist, has excessive bright colors, is opaque and has lower hardness than jade. Because of their low hardness, real jade will not change no matter how it is rubbed, and the more it grinds, the more moist it becomes. As soon as the stone is rubbed, it changes immediately and stripes appear.
In addition to the above methods, the identification of fake jade mainly depends on the quality of jade. In the era of underdeveloped science, the ancients could not identify the mineral composition of gems and jade, so every time they met gems, they should be distinguished by color. Today, although we have the knowledge of mineralogy, the color of jade is still one of the important basis for us to identify jade, because color is the most intuitive and easy to identify, and it can be seen with the naked eye.
Regarding the colors of traditional jade and common gemstones in China, the jewelry arts and crafts industry in China has accumulated a lot of experience for many years, and many vivid color names have appeared.
For example, jadeite includes emerald green (similar to the color of jadeite), brilliant green (jadeite is not black), boxwood green (jadeite is yellowish), bright poplar green (jadeite is bright), glass green (jadeite is transparent), Ying Ge green (the same color as Ying Ge feather), spinach green (strong but not bright), shallow water green (jadeite is light) and light sun green (light). Oil green (green and dark gray), lotus root starch (light pink and purple tone), violet (violet), chrome black (black green), white material (white) and jade material (full green).
Nephrite includes white (white jade), fat white (suet jade), bluish gray or bluish white (blue white jade), cyan (white gray, white green sapphire), yellow (topaz), green (emerald), black (black jade), colorful (nephrite opal produced in Taiwan Province Province), in addition to tiger skin jade, sugar jade and yellow-brown skin.
Lantian jade has green in white and yellow-green in white. The color is not uniform, often foggy and spotted.
Nanyang jade has white, green, purple, yellow, green, dark green, blue-green, pure blue, white in blue, white in green, milky white, purple white and so on. According to the statistics of Henan Geological Bureau, there are more than 30 colors.
Turquoise is green, grass green, yellow-green, white-green, pale white, light blue-green, sky blue, lake blue, and green with black spots and black lines.
Agate has many colors, such as red, bordeaux, brownish red, earth red, crimson, white, gray, gray, green, grass green, onion green, blue, blue-white, blue and so on, such as colored stripes or ribbons, which are various and varied.
Lapis lazuli is blue with purple tones, dark blue, dark blue, with Venus (containing pyrite) in the blue and white (containing calcite) in the blue.
Malachite is green, malachite green, dark green, light green and dark color, such as stripes, green and yellow-green.
Chrysocolla has light sky blue green, sky blue and turquoise.
Diamonds are colorless, white, black, purple, green, yellow, dark yellow, brown, yellowish brown, yellowish green, turquoise, blue and grayish black.