Genuine jade earrings, two pierced discs hanging from a short chain and a gold tone hook. The disc turns freely and never presents itself the same way twice.
The shape is called a peace buckle: a flat ring with no sharp edge and no point, which is exactly what a stone of ordinary hardness needs.
Genuine means jadeite or nephrite, never serpentine nor dyed quartzite. Mounted, therefore unweighable, and treatment status not determined. Why I write it.
Genuine jade earrings mounted on hooks: a small round bead at the top, a short chain, then a pierced disc that hangs and turns freely below it. The green is light, a little milky, translucent at the edges.
In four lines
Two pierced discs hanging from a short chain and a hook.
The disc turns freely: it never presents itself the same way twice.
Gold tone metal, alloy not stated. No stone other than jade.
Genuine means jadeite or nephrite, never serpentine nor dyed quartzite.
The pierced disc, a shape that has a name
That small flat ring with a hole in the centre is not a jeweller’s invention: it is an old Chinese shape, called a peace buckle, thicker and smaller than the large Bi disc of Neolithic burials from which it descends. It is worn pierced, with no mounting, exactly as here.
What interests me in this shape is physical before it is symbolic: a pierced disc has no sharp edge, no point, no corner. Jade is very tough but its hardness stays ordinary, and it is fine edges that chip first on a worn piece. A flat ring has none. The difference between hardness and toughness.
What genuine means here, and what it does not mean
On this site, genuine jade earrings are earrings whose stone is jadeite or nephrite, and not serpentine sold under the name “new jade” or “Korean jade”, nor dyed quartzite sold as “Malaysia jade”. None of those names designates jade.
Genuine never opposes untreated to treated. That is the most widespread confusion on the market, and it suits everyone except the buyer. The treatment status of these discs is not determined, it is written in the reading above, and no word on this page suggests otherwise. What the letters A, B and C cover.
A pair, therefore two stones
On a natural material, two discs cut from the same block are never strictly identical: one will be a little milkier, the other a little more translucent, and the green will shift by a quarter of a tone. Look at them side by side against the light, that is where it shows.
A pair whose two stones were of a strictly identical green would deserve a closer look rather than celebration: a perfectly reproducible colour is what a dye produces, not a rock. I claim nothing about this one, whose treatment status is not determined. The checks that need no equipment.
The hook, and what is better known in advance
The mounting is an open hook, the kind sometimes called a French wire. It does not close: the earring holds by its own weight and by the curve of the wire. It is comfortable and light, and it is also the mounting most easily lost, since a jumper or a scarf is enough to unhook it.
The metal is gold toned. My supplier says neither gold plated, nor vermeil, nor gilt brass, and those three cannot be told apart in a photograph: so the page writes gold tone, and nothing more. On a sensitive ear, take that into account. Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Jadeite or nephrite, not resolved
Colour
Light green
Stone shape
Pierced disc
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Chain
Metal
Gold tone, alloy not stated
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Women
Paired stones
None, jade only
Mineral family
Calcic amphibole, Sodium aluminium pyroxene
Hardness (Mohs)
6 to 7
Reference density
2.90 to 3.36 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to jade worn at the ear
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. Nothing here is demonstrated. These are usages and beliefs, old and documented, that I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment, and I attribute no effect to this one.
The stone that movesAn earring follows the step and the breath. Several traditions have read a meaning into that constant movement; I mention it because it comes up often, without giving it more weight than that.
The ear, a late usageJade was first an object of ritual, of rank and of power, rarely an earring. The jade ear piece is a recent form, carried by modern trade rather than by tradition.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade is associated with qualities of character rather than with effects on the body: uprightness, constancy, restraint. It is the best documented meaning of all.
The peace buckleThe small pierced disc carries a Chinese name that translates as peace buckle, and it descends from the large Bi disc of Neolithic burials. It is one of the few jade shapes whose traditional name is attested and stable.
Dispatch within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no stock in reserve, and I will not promise a date I could not meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 whatever the destination, free on orders over €47 to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount is shown in your basket before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece travels in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not a question of presentation: the hardness of jade is unremarkable, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together arrive marked.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No need to give a reason. An email is enough to open a return; there is no form to fill in. Return postage is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Lukewarm water, mild soap, a soft cloth. A very soft brush for the hollows of a carving. That is all, and it is enough.
What You Must Never Do, and Why
No ultrasonic cleaners, no steam, no solvents, no heat source. This is not a precaution for show: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier does not know it, and weighing identifies the mineral without telling me anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The information sheet on treatments.
Scratches, and Where They Come From
Jade is tough, meaning very difficult to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it usable for axe heads in the Neolithic. Its hardness, by contrast, is unremarkable, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7: that is what dulls a jade, not knocks. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and cream, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening and sport, where knocks against hard edges are common. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. French, from Morbihan, living in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them mounted: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and the metalwork is not done by my hand. What I bring is the selection, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am not a gemmologist, not a lapidary, not a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before a listing goes online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unmounted, I weigh it in air, then suspended from a thread in a glass of water: the ratio of the two masses gives the density, and that figure separates jadeite, nephrite, serpentine and dyed quartzite without ambiguity.
One example per listing, and not every piece. I do not handle the piece that is sent to you, and I would rather write that down than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier does not know it, and the scales do not tell me: they identify the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I do not have that done. So you will never read “Grade A jadeite”, “Type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
Where My Jade Comes From
No Burmese jadeite, and the first reason is legal. Not the one you read everywhere: the JADE Act of 2008 did ban these stones in the United States, but that ban was lifted on 7 October 2016. What applies today dates from 8 April 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but a US person is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. A single supply chain serves ten markets, so it has to hold up in the most demanding of them. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin charter.
