The the transparancy and viberance of color of this nephrite Jade is astonishingly captivating and the character animals seem like they could be out of a Disney Pixar movie.The characters have a proudness to them that make me feel they are important as maybe in the royal courts.
Also from what I can read about yellow golden nephrite is that it is worth more than white nephrite jade as it is more rare and that in the times of Ming they would have been owned only by the Imperial Courts.
From what I can study these are crafted from the Mountian varity of nephrite as they are more shiney and not filled with greasey pores like river nephrite.
There is normal ware on these ,one hairline crack on the seal of the Eagle and one splinter chip missing from the Goat. The Foo Dog has no slight defects.
I made a slides show you can see here.
My Aunt had told me of getting these at an estate auction and that the Dragon one was yellow and purple but she could not win him and she was very sad as he was so amazing in the character carving and the color.So this set is not complete but still wonderful non-the-less.
