Can you help out the new guy please?

[bogtrotten]

Hi
Thanks for taking the time to look, at times I see snuff botles being passed so so when I found this place I figured I could start learning, I am ok with glass and pottery so this seems like a good move. I picked these bottles up a local thrift shop the one to left might be glass but I think the other two are stone any help would great.

[rpfstoneman]

Joe,

The far right bottle is agate (a form of crystalline quartz called chalcedony).  The stone pattern is a variation between a rainbow and macaroni agate.

The middle bottle is also stone, again likely agate but could also be a low quality jade or serpentine; would likely need to see this one first hand to verify the stone material.

The left bottle is glass, in what appears to be a white ‘snow flake’ base with a red overlay that was grinded out to reveal the design.

Without better resolution and pics of the top and base of the bottles, this is the best determination I make at present.  Bottles appear to be contemporary, meaning 1950 to present.

Charll

[George]

The far right one is Ocean Jasper, and the middle one looks more like a moss type agate..

It's hard to tell sometimes.. On the first overaly, that snowflake or bubble infused base glass can sometimes be older glass.. So hard to tell, because this type of glass is reproduced so much..

Not that it is an absolute for determining age, but does that one happen to have the work China etched on the bottom ?

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Charll,
   To me all look like old (ie, 19th C.) bottles, but I've not looked carefully at the stuff coming out recently. The shapes look right; the colour of the red overlay and the camphor glass under look right; the carving on the overlay looks right. The stone bottles seem to be a Moss Agate in the middle, and an Agate/Quartz mix on the right (I know 'Macaroni Agate''; what's a 'Rainbow Agate' ?) .
Joey

[George]

Charll,
   To me all look like old (ie, 19th C.) bottles,

I agree with ya Joey.. They look old to me too..

The one on the right is Ocean Jasper for sure though..

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

George, What is 'Ocean Jasper'? The white bits look like quartz; the coloured bits like agate (cryptocrystalline quartz). Is Jasper also a cryptocrystalline quartz?
 Joey

[George]

All Jaspers have some quartz/silica within them. Some more than others..   The more the quartz/silica content, the more beautiful a polish that can be accomplished.

In this case, yes.., the white area is pretty much pure quartz.

This particular ocean, is one of the many orbed types of Jasper. 

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

George,
    Thank you, this was an education in minerology. Joey

[George]

I should have included that it is called Ocean Jasper because it can only be mined off the ocean coast of Madigascar..

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

George, If it is available off the coast of Madagascar, is it possibly also available in The Seychelles and in Mauritius, which are off the Indian Ocean coast of Madagascar, as well? How did they find it in the ocean?
Joey

[George]

I do not know if it is also available there.. I will try to find out.

They originally found it, and also today are only able to mine it during low tide..

[bogtrotten]

Thanks for all the help and quick response learned a bunch, they do seeem to have some age based on what I know about glass and pottery no markings posting a picture of the bottoms thanks again!!

[George]

Ok...

I think the Ocean Jasper is newer.

The overlay.., I just can not say for sure, but old or not, it is a pretty overlay.

I am second guessing myself on the one previously ( middle one here ) labeled as Moss. Am using a magnifying glass and think I see very some small orbs. Some how need different pics.

With your macro setting on, maybe try using a flash, or place it right beneath a bright light, and or maybe both.. Beneath a bright light and also use a flash.  Need a better look.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

George,
   Do you know since when Ocean Jasper has been mined? If the earliest is like Zoisite with ruby inclusions, examples of which were first sent to China by Chinese working on the TanZam (Tanzania/Zambia) railway, in the early-mid 1960s (one of the PRC's first overseas aid projects), then we know the bottle cannot be earlier than when the stone was mined.
   For example, there are many American Agate bottles from ca. 1850-1870 (or whenever it was built), when Chinese working on the Transcontinental Railroad sent pebbles and chunks back to China, and they were made into snuff bottles.
  Best, Joey

[George]

George,
   Do you know since when Ocean Jasper has been mined?

Fairly new to market Joey.

In the 1950's, a buyer was shown a few pieces by a prospector, but the prospector couldn't remember where he'd got the material.

In the 1977 edition of Grund's Mineral Encyclopedia, there was a photograph of the jasper, but its source was still unknown until 1998.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

So basically, we know when the Ocean Jasper dates from. I've got t-shirts that are older. ;-)
Obviously, the shape was copied from an old bottle. Joey