Photo Credit: alifballangrud
Artisan Carved Contemporary Nephrite Jade Pendant
Asking Price: $425 (price as of 2017; item no longer available)
Pros:
-Here is a magnificent, artisan hand-carved, contemporary nephrite jade pendant that sensuously portrays ginkgo biloba leaves and fruit. It also comes with a smaller, celadon-colored jadeite jade bead as an accent piece.
-This contemporary nephrite jade pendant measures 6.1 cm (2.4 inches) tall by 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) wide by 1.35 cm (0.53 inches) thick. It weighs 2.9 ounces, or approximately 82 grams.
-This contemporary nephrite jade pendant was carved from a marvelous slab of high quality green nephrite jade mined from the Mount Ogden region in British Columbia, Canada. British Columbia is the world’s most important source of gem quality nephrite jade, with perhaps 75% of global production.
-Nephrite jade originating from North America is almost always untreated, which is very positive.
-The quality of the nephrite jade used in this piece is excellent, with a pleasing, even color and good translucency. It is approaching the quality of the very finest British Columbian nephrite jade available in the market today, which is referred to as Polar Jade.
-The workmanship of this contemporary nephrite jade pendant is absolutely phenomenal. Jade is notorious for the great skill and tremendous patience necessary to successfully create a fine piece. This piece of jade has been superlatively carved, as evidenced by the delicate veining on the gingko leaves and the subtle undercutting of the forms in relief.
-A lot of jade available in the Western market today is carved in Chinese workshops and exported. Most of these modern Chinese jades are stiff and uninspired pieces of poor to mediocre quality that use recycled traditional motifs. Of course, there are some truly exquisite Chinese jade carvings being produced today, but their prices are astronomically high and they are almost always reserved for the East Asian market.
-The artist who created this masterpiece is a self-taught jade carver and lapidarist from Oregon named Alif Ballangrud. I find that some of the finest contemporary art available today, like this piece, is created by non-traditionally trained artists who work in a variety of unusual mediums.
-Carved jade and rough jade are both interesting investment plays on the future growth of the Chinese economy. The Chinese have a tremendous cultural affinity for jade because it represents virtue, loyalty and perfection in traditional Chinese culture. As the Chinese economy has expanded, pricing for high quality jade has reached dizzying heights there. In fact, I am certain that if this contemporary nephrite jade pendant was for sale in a jewelry shop in Hong Kong, Shanghai or Beijing, the price probably wouldn’t be a penny less than $1,000.
-This is one of those slam-dunk, no-brainer investments. The artist is pricing this contemporary nephrite jade pendant to cover the cost of his materials and labor, but this masterpiece is worth much, much more. I don’t care whether you choose to throw it in a safety deposit box, wear it, give it to your spouse as a gift or display it in a curio cabinet. Just pay the nice man his $425 and take this treasure home! I am almost certain that you will double, triple or quadruple your money within a decade.
Cons:
-Nephrite jade is one of the two types of true jade, the other being jadeite jade. All else being equal, the very best quality jadeite jade, known as Imperial jade, is considerably more valuable than the finest nephrite jade. However, Imperial jadeite jade is so expensive that it is invariably purchased, carved and sold exclusively in the Chinese market at this point.
-A critic could argue that the sunken fields of this contemporary nephrite jade pendant have been left “unfinished” by the artist. I disagree, as I believe that the rough background was intentionally left in place in order to provide visual contrast with the exquisitely refined gingko leaves and berry. In any case, it highlights the massive amount of effort that went into this artwork; each square millimeter of that background had to be tediously, yet carefully, excavated using a small drill bit repeatedly bored into the surface of the stone.
