I love these soapstone vases and I have a couple little ones. I won't give you a value, because that is easy enough to research.

But you are right, the ones with the good carving are better. They were mostly made in the 1920s and 1930s from what I gather, and were quite collectable for a time in the 1970s, not that is impacts the value, just that folks do know the style and type of vase and it 'has a value'.

Some of the carvings on these vases can be rather crude and even hard to distinguish.

But you are right the quality of carving, for me and most collectors, seems the most important. From what I have seen I would grade your carving on a scale of 1-5, to be a 5+.

The next factor, concerning the carving is how the grain of the soapstone affects the pattern, dark or very light streaks and blotches are common and can 'ruin' the pattern of the carving, or by an expert carver, the grain is used like a cameo be an attribute (well carved pieces of cameo caliber are exceedingly rare and on a scale of 1-5 would be an 11). Collectors prefer these very 3d roses, like your vase has, with the delicate stems as opposed to the flat kind of chrysanthemums with lots of flat boring leaves hiding the crude stem carvings.

Do consider in future posts using the gardenweb service to upload at least one pic, especially the one that shows the most detail (see: Image file to upload (optional): on the posting form); you can also "follow up" your own first entry like I am doing, and just upload photos, if that makes sense?) The whitish areas of the carving concern me, but they don't seem to distract.

Next concern to value is size. Taller the better.

I personally like the two-vase pieces, that isn't a standard western form, so I like how unusual it is and how it seems like an interpretation of eastern taste for the western buyer.

Do go to eBay and search recent sales (through advanced search: enter soapstone vase, or Chinese stone vase or whatever and under "Search including" tick "Sold listings" to see what dealers are actually getting; if you tick 'Completed listings' you will see the unsold items along with the sold shown in green prices)

By my estimation, you paid a fair price, not a steal, for an estate sale. But that said, if I saw this vase at that price, and I had an antique store, I would snap it up. But that's me.

Here is a link that might be useful: eBay Advanced Search

This post was edited by Lilylore on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 0:22

Thank you very much! Your post was very informative. I know more about how to research this now. I did not use the Gardenweb image posting because I wanted to post more than one. I must have selected the wrong size to upload, as I was doing it by memory. They did have a few taller ones, but it was like you said: I felt the blotches interfered with or distracted from the carving. I took a closer look at the whitish areas on mine: I only really noticed that in the photo. These are areas where the carver did not seem to put as high a polish on. It is not an inclusion in the stone.