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.
Dispatched within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no buffer stock, and I won’t promise a timeframe I couldn’t meet.
Postage charges
€6.99 to any destination, free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount appears in the cart before you pay.
The packaging, and why it matters
Every piece ships in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This isn’t about presentation: the hardness of jade is ordinary, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together end up scratching each other.
Fourteen days to change your mind
With no need to explain yourself. An email is enough to open a return, there is no form to fill in. Return postage is at your expense, unless the piece doesn’t match its listing or arrives damaged.
Warm water, mild soap, a soft cloth. A very soft brush for the hollows of a carving. That’s all, and it’s enough.
What you must never do, and why
No ultrasonic cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. This isn’t a token precaution: the treatment status of my pieces is not established. My supplier doesn’t know, and weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin tolerates 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 hard to break: its interlocking crystal structure resists fracturing, and that is why axes could be shaped from it in the Neolithic. Its hardness, on the other hand, is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in everyday dust sits at 7: that is what dulls 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 the knocks against corners happen. 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. I’m French, from Morbihan, and based in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and I don’t do the metalwork myself. The work I do is the sorting, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am neither a gemmologist, nor a lapidary, nor a therapist, and I don’t claim to be.
I weigh, I don’t certify
Before putting a reference online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unset, 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 reference, not every piece. I don’t handle the piece that goes out to you, and I would rather say so than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I can’t know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier doesn’t know, and the scales say nothing about it: they establish the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I don’t have that done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
Where my jade comes from
No Burmese jadeite, and the first reason is a legal one. Not the reason you read everywhere: the JADE Act of 2008 did indeed 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-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no general ban, but an American is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has passed through. One single supply chain for ten markets: it has to hold up for the most demanding of them. When an origin isn’t confirmed to me in writing, the listing doesn’t state it. My sourcing policy.
