Help Identifying Agarwood

[Ovaeasy]

My father-in-law recently passed away in Japan. He worked import/export between Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong for 40 years, and he had assembled a collection of fine art and other rare things. My wife and I have been clearing out his storage when we came upon a rather large piece of agarwood (weighing a little over 4kg). We took it to an incense shop in Tokyo, and they were quite sure it is kyara / jinkou from Vietnam.

Can anyone help me confirm where it's from, and maybe even give us a hint at its relative quality? I have attached two photos, but would be happy to provide more if it is helpful!

The incense shop was concerned that it might have been "stuffed" to make it weigh more. Does anyone have experience with this?

Any help the community can provide, we would be hugely appreciative!

 

[Andrew Salkin]

Haha. Sure you have a few of us here who would love to buy a few grams. In all seriousness, reach out to @KodoKing - he's smelled a lot of wood. I'm sure if you sent him a small piece from a few different sections of the larger piece, he'd be able to give you some idea on quality.

If it's kyara from Vietnam, that's a museum quality piece.

I think the Japanese incense houses will do free kyara appraisals as well. Where did you take it to be looked at?

 

[KodoKing]

Thanks for the shoutout Andrew! However, the scope of me trying to figure out what this is from a photo is unlikely.

Hey @Ovaeasy - if you took this into a reputable shop in Tokyo, they would likely be able to identify it on the spot as well as score its quality and worth. I wouldn't want to even begin to speculate on the photo's alone. There are many vendors on here who may have more insight to share as well as experience and may have come across a situation like this before.

Unfortunately, the Agarwood trade is not usually taken at face value due to the many forms of counterfeit.

 

[sabahan]

Ovaeasy, that's an incredibly high quality piece at first glance.

 

[Ovaeasy]

Thanks all for the quick reactions! We're going to get some more estimates from incense industry folks here in Japan and I'll let you know what I find out. At this point, I'm really worried that it may have adulterated. There are two things that I find surprising (as a layperson):
(1) something that looks like dried glue along some cracks, and
(2) where I can see inside there is a very hard gritty substance (almost like an organic cement made out of dirt, mud, and tiny rocks) that I wouldn't expect to see inside a tree.

I've attached one photo of each of these. Since I've never handled raw agarwood before, please let me know if this is normal or if there is any other explanation other than adulteration.

Huge thanks again; so glad I found this community!

 

[halim]

i advice to you to make not just one statment of one man , go to many reputed house of agarwood an you can compare all what they tell and quote of price and you will see what better for you
maybe you have some dollars in your hand or just aldutered/ fake piece , so take your time and find reputable and serious quoter

 

[KodoKing]

Thanks all for the quick reactions! We're going to get some more estimates from incense industry folks here in Japan and I'll let you know what I find out. At this point, I'm really worried that it may have adulterated. There are two things that I find surprising (as a layperson):
(1) something that looks like dried glue along some cracks, and
(2) where I can see inside there is a very hard gritty substance (almost like an organic cement made out of dirt, mud, and tiny rocks) that I wouldn't expect to see inside a tree.

I've attached one photo of each of these. Since I've never handled raw agarwood before, please let me know if this is normal or if there is any other explanation other than adulteration.

Huge thanks again; so glad I found this community!

Glue is definitely common - especially for a beautiful and large piece such as this, when the worker carves away all the white (non infected) wood, he can break off a piece of infected wood by mistake. In order to preserve the visualization of the infection - the glue will be used to hold everything together - I've seen pieces glued back together, cracks filled, I've seen glue applied to the outside of a piece to make it look more shiny.

That close up of the rocks and dirt is bizarre, typically Agarwood will be carved extensively, which means these pieces are usually as hollow as possible. Remember that the white/non infected wood is susceptible to moisture, mold, other means of deterioration over time. It is possible that in this piece, when the white wood was removed, it became too brittle so was refilled with the mud compound (note, Ive not seen this before, but I haven't dealt with large pieces like this). Alternately, if all the white wood couldn't be removed, maybe this mud acts as an insulation from the elements. Again, pure speculation -

Do let us know what the Japanese houses say - Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[Godoud]

My father-in-law recently passed away in Japan. He worked import/export between Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong for 40 years, and he had assembled a collection of fine art and other rare things. My wife and I have been clearing out his storage when we came upon a rather large piece of agarwood (weighing a little over 4kg). We took it to an incense shop in Tokyo, and they were quite sure it is kyara / jinkou from Vietnam.

Can anyone help me confirm where it's from, and maybe even give us a hint at its relative quality? I have attached two photos, but would be happy to provide more if it is helpful!

The incense shop was concerned that it might have been "stuffed" to make it weigh more. Does anyone have experience with this?

Any help the community can provide, we would be hugely appreciative!

Kind of like indonesia or malaysia oud

 

[JAM]

My father-in-law recently passed away in Japan. He worked import/export between Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong for 40 years, and he had assembled a collection of fine art and other rare things. My wife and I have been clearing out his storage when we came upon a rather large piece of agarwood (weighing a little over 4kg). We took it to an incense shop in Tokyo, and they were quite sure it is kyara / jinkou from Vietnam.

Can anyone help me confirm where it's from, and maybe even give us a hint at its relative quality? I have attached two photos, but would be happy to provide more if it is helpful!

The incense shop was concerned that it might have been "stuffed" to make it weigh more. Does anyone have experience with this?

Any help the community can provide, we would be hugely appreciative!

Now THAT is a bad boy indeed.