Rare Early Qing Dynasty Chinese Rock Crystal Dragon Carving. Rare Rock Crystal carving brought to market by Golden Oriental Auctioneers in their ‘Chinese National Treasure Antique Auction’ held on May 23rd, 2015 in Hong Kong. The elaborate three dimensional carving depicts a fully featured Coiled Dragon encircled by an elliptical (5 5/8” wide X 3 1/8” tall X 5/8”) thick border intricately carved on both sides and around the edges with an early Chinese motif featuring classic cloud and scroll patterns. It exhibits a fine old smooth polish over its entirety. Frankly, while obviously old with numerous mineral adheasions still attached in various places, we have never seen anything exactly like it. We have purposely left it in its original uncleaned condition for the end-collector to make their own determination regards the final state of presentation. The experts at Golden Oriental referred to it as an ‘ANTIQUE CRYSTAL AMULET’, and suggested it is approximately 100 to 150 years old. They further stated that it was “found underground with soil and dirt still attached.” Copies of that text from their auction will be provided to the buyer. Study the pictures closely. It is obviously a tremendous artwork and we speculate it was no doubt executed for someone quite important. Its exact usage, other than possibly purely decorative, is simply unknown to us at this time. It is very possible at one time it stood as a plaque on a wooden presentation stand so it could be viewed from all angles, including straight through. We do agree that it is at least as old as Golden Oriental suggested, something like Late Qing Dynasty, 1800-1900, and based on the uniqueness and quality, maybe even somewhat earlier. Measures 5 5/8" wide X 3 1/8" tall X 5/8" thick. Weighs a hefty 286 grams.