Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I try not to buy things without being fairly sure of them. Having lived at one time in China for ten years, I know how clever the fakers can be (everything from ancient jade to Bordeaux wine!). Just in the past year, I've seen the copies that are available in Beijing and Bangkok for myself, and yes, they are sometimes quite good, but both the beads and the stringing material on this example show the subtle signs of age and wear that you don't find on the fakes. The same is true of the lacquer box.

The necklace is certainly not recent, because it was in the same collection for many years before it came on the market. And the friends I asked for an opinion about it before I decided to buy it, include one of the most respected curators of Asian art at the Met in NewYork and a couple of people from Sotheby's. None of that is ever foolproof, of course. Fakes can still slip by, but I'd certainly stack it up against someone who has only seen a medium quality pic online before making a sweeping generalization.

Cheers,

Will