Beijing Hanhai Auction Co. Ltd is one of the largest auction houses of China and has organized on November 19^th and 20^th 2005 in Beijing an auction of Chinese Antiquities. The 562 items presented range from porcelain, bronzes, cloisonné ware, ivories, seals to jades. The small jades numbered 122 pieces mostly of the Qing Dynasty period.

I have copied most of the jade items pictures and present them below for your enjoyment and also to give you an idea of the asking price and the price realized in the auction.

Click here to view the gallery of images

The booming Chinese Economy, an increased domestic demand and a general rarification of good quality White Jade river pebbles from Khotan/Hetian are the cause that the prices of small craved Nephrite Jade items continue to rise inexorably.

At the beginning of last December I had visited the shop of Mr. Hou Da Jun, a native of Hetian, in Hangzhou to enquire about Jades and purchase a small White Hade Mountain for a fellow FOJ.

Mr. Hou Da Jun lives part of his time in Hetian and is quite knowledgeable about the Jade situation there. He allowed my to take some pictures of items in his shop after I explained him that I want to keep you, fellow FOJ, informed about the price situation here. A first glimpse of these prices has been published on our homepage in April 2005 with the title “Gold is valuable but Jade is precious”

The price of these small carved or naturally shaped items is influenced significantly by the amount and type of color, the absolute weight and translucency as also from being either River of Mountain Jade.

Mr. Hou Da Yu showing me Hetian White Jade (the two pebbles below) in his shop near Wushan Square in Hangzhou. 

170g of naturally shaped white River Jade pebble at 20000RMB or 2500 $US or about 15$US per gram. 

230g of naturally shaped white River Jade pebble with thick russet colored skin at 30000RMB or 3750 $US or about 16$US per gram. 

Coiled Dragon Chop (seal block) in white Hetian Jade with Material certificate at 4000RMB or 500$US. 

Bracelet with 8 (lucky number) naturally shaped White Jade pebbles at 3280 RMB or 410$US 

Bracelet with 8 (lucky number) naturally shaped White Jade pebbles at 3500 RMB or 435$US 

Two pendants carved from small river pebbles showing how the color of the skin influences the prices.
The left one has a russet colored skin and is priced at 3000RMB or 375$US or at 61$US/gram.
The right one, with café-au-lait colored patch, is priced at 2000RMB or 250$ or at 25$US/gram!

Small pendant shaped in the form of Buddha with a small streak of brown skin priced at 1380 RMB or 173$US or 24$ per gram.

Loose white River jade pebbles in 3 to 6g size offered at about 15 to 20$US per gram.

46g of Bangle in immaculate white Hetian Nephrite Mountain (?) Jade at 2480RMB or 320$US or 7$US/gram

Small Jade mountains carved from Hetian River Pebbles at 8000RMB or 1000$US

Front and Backside of a Jade Mountain of similar size then above but carved from White Hetian Mountain Jade but priced at 250$US

Nice deep carved Jade Mountain in Hetian Jade from the shop of Mrs. Chen Yu Hua in Hangzhou priced at 22000 RMB or 2750$US   (Contact Mr. Yang at   ycw008@163.com )

Another Jade mountain in Mrs. Chen’s shop at 18.000RMB or 2250$US

Small mountain offered for 1225$ US showing a Sage riding a buffalo or how to take a picture of the front and back at the same moment.

Pebble with deep carving showing two sages in a boat taking shelter, from stormy sea, in a cave priced and at 1875$

H.Giess         January 2006

The price of Lapis Nephriticus about 1820 in the Netherlands

In the search of ancient sources of Nephrite Jade in Europe, I came across in the homepage  http://euromin.w3sites.net/photosensmp/photos.html , of the picture of an auction catalogue listing minerals with their European origin and the auction or realized (?) price.

I wondered if perhaps Jade or Lapis Nephriticus was one of the auctions items. If its place of origin would be listed, it would pre-date the first discovery of in situ Nephrite in Europe by Traube in 1885

After a little additional digging and with the help of the Curator of the Mineralogical Museum of the l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Mrs Lydie Touret ( www.musee.ensmp.fr ), I was forwarded to the Teyler’s Museum in Haarlem in the Netherlands where the original copy was located.

The Teyler’s Museum ( www.teylersmuseum.nl ) is the oldest Museum of the Netherlands and was established 1784 by the will of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778), a rich textile and silk merchant of Haarlem. He was an avid collector and wanted to bring science and art together for the benefits and enrichment of mankind. His vast collections outgrew his private home in the Damstrat 21 and in 1784 additional buildings, with the famous Oval Hall, were erected. In 1878 a new facade was given to the buildings and the main Museum entrance shifted to the Spaarne, the main river-canal of Haarlem.

1. Pieter Teyler van der Hulst
2. The Museum in Haarlem
3. The Library

With a couple of e-mails and the help of Mrs. Van Hoorn, the efficient Librarian of the Museum, I was able to quickly locate these documents.

In a set of 5 catalogues concerning minerals, two indeed made reference to Lapis Nephriticus.

The first reference was: Catalogue….du Cabinet du Duc Charles de Lorraine (Bruxelles 1847) p.13 mentioning under No 169: Nephrite (Jade Néphritique, pierre de hache, Beilstein) but without mentioning its origin or price.

The second reference was contained in a catalogue evidently owned once by Matthias Steeven van Geuns, a well-known Dutch Physician, Botanist of the Hortus Botanicus and Professor and Rector of the University of Utrecht.

1. M.S. van Geuns
2. The Hortus Botanicus
3. The University of Utrecht

In this document: Catalogue… le Professeur M.van Geuns (1735-1817) (fragment) on p.289 and under Nr 144 indeed Lapis Nephriticus was listed!



Page 288 and 289 of the catalogue of minerals of M. van Geuns, with annotations by hand

Detail of the entry 144: Lapis Nephriticus and 143: Lapis Serpentinus available for 4 Stuivers.

1. Willem 1, King of Netherlands (1772-1843)
2. The Silver Guilder of his reign
3. The historical price trend of silver in US Dollars

The value of these 4 Stuivers (or 0.2 Guilder) can be related to an actually currency, such as the US Dollar, via the value of the silver content of the Dutch Guilder. One Guilder contained 9.6g or 0.338 ounces of silver. In 1817 to 1827 the price of silver was 1.293 US $ and thus the offered pieces of Lapis nephriticus and Lapis serpentines, of unknown quantity or weight, had a value of approximately 8 US cents.

In order to get the value of the 8 US cents of 1817 in today’s US Dollars, I visited the homepage  http://eh.net/hmit/compare/ where one can get an estimates what for example an unskilled workers wage was valued at this time. From this calculation in 1817 8 US cents were equivalent to about 13 US Dollars today or two hours of wage of a fast food counter employee!