mere pounamu

[josh stout]

I recently have started carving jade and I was looking for examples of mere to copy when I ran across one for sale. I know originals are impossible to find, but something about this one made me think it was worth a gamble. The price was reasonable for a modern machine made example, but I think it was made traditionally. I would love comments. I got what I paid for if, it is new, but I think I may have won the lottery. Please let me know your opinion.

It is slightly more than 10 inches and quite thick. I have shown it next to a New Guinea axe (adze) that I assume used similar techniques. The first two dark jade photos are of the axe to show the lines left by grinding. Then the posts are of the mere to show details of the manufacture. The lines do not look like modern tool marks, and the detail inside the lanyard hole also looks traditional.