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Jade Chinese Dragon Sculptures, Fake or Real?

Chinese dragon sculptures are often done in jade but how do you know if it is real jade? One way is knowing the history of a piece, but with pieces that are less historic, and with jewelry, there are other problems you’ll want to be on the lookout for as well. First is whether your jade is actually jade, and second is whether it’s been treated to change its color or consistency.

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George Harlow, the curator of gems and minerals at the American Museum of Natural History, said that it’s easy for him to figure out whether or not a stone is jade just by its heft. (Real jade is heavier than jade imitations like quartz, glass and soapstone.) Another, albeit more invasive, test involves scratching a blade across the surface of the stone with as much force as you can; if it scratches, it’s not jade. But good luck convincing a dealer to let you try that one on a potential purchase.

As for alterations, art appraiser and dealer David Killen told us, “There’s just so much chicanery with jade, between the dyes and the impregnations, the radiation, the boiling. There are so many games to alter jade, to enhance the color, to rid it of its impurities, that you have to assume the overwhelming probability that a piece of jade has undergone some kind of process.”

Bottom line: if a jade carving costs less than $200, it’s probably not jade.