Thursday, May 05, 2011

Treasure Blog: Chinese Jade, 18th c.

'Eee, that old rubbish? We've had it for ages!

And some of it's worth quite a lot, having been looted from an 18th century Chinese emperor's palace.

Such as this cup and saucer, worth over $400,000.:



More at the link.
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1 comment:

The Cohen Collection said...

Recently the wealthy Chinese have become very interested in jade, but because they are investing so heavily, prices have been going through the roof! As a collector (who helped create ‘The Cohen Collection’) it is apparent that non-Chinese collectors have very different views about how to value 18th century jade. Carvings that make such clever use of natural flaws in the stone, or that use coloured inclusions so brilliantly are not so highly valued by these Chinese buyers, not nearly as much as carvings in pure white jade!

These Chinese are regarding jade as an alternative investment commodity. As most of the usual forms of investment, currencies and property have all proved so precarious, perhaps these successful millionaires are being very shrewd!

I do not know if they have been influenced by the huge increase in the raw material prices. Because over the last ten years, whilst gold has increased by about 3 times, the best Hetian jade raw material has increased in price by 100 times!

Considering values, this is where we older collectors are now really confounded. Because if we consider a well carved, good quality pure white 18th century jade carving, that would normally have sold for somewhere around our expected highest value, in any auction these days, this same piece will now probably sell for anything from 4 to 8 times that figure, to a Chinese investor! Is it possible that in time these buyers will eventually also value the wonderful craftsmanship that most of us collectors appreciate and love?

12/04/2011 02:30:00 PM

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