A jade turtle pendant carved in the round from a single piece of nephrite: a dragon turtle, with a dragon’s head, round eyes and a mane swept back over the shell, a domed carapace with engraved scales. The grey green of the stone warms into a honey yellow patch towards the base.
In four lines
A dragon turtle carved in the round, from a single piece of nephrite.
Dragon’s head, mane, engraved scales on the carapace.
A deep grey green, warmed by a honey yellow patch.
No metal: it is worn on a cord or a chain.
A turtle with a dragon’s head
This jade turtle pendant is not an ordinary turtle. Its head is that of a dragon: a broad muzzle, two round protruding eyes, and a long mane that sweeps back in an arc towards the shell. The body, on the other hand, is truly a turtle’s, legs folded under a domed carapace whose every scale is engraved with a clean line.
The dragon turtle is a very old figure of Chinese art, bringing together the two animals most loaded with meaning in that tradition. It is found in stone at the foot of steles, in bronze in temples, and in jade in the hand.
The carving, from every angle
It is carved in the round, that is to say in three dimensions, to be looked at from every side, and not in simple relief on a plaque. The carver worked the hollows as much as the bumps: the bright polish catches the light on the dome of the shell and on the brow, while the engravings stay in shadow and draw the piece.
Under the thumb, the shell is smooth and domed; you quickly pick up the habit of turning it between your fingers.
A grey green that warms up
Nephrite is here a deep grey green, translucent on the finest reliefs, with faint lighter veils. Towards the base, the stone turns to a warm honey yellow patch. That change of tone gives the carving a depth a uniform colour would not have: no piece will have exactly the same.
No metal touches the stone: it is worn on a silk or cotton cord for a simple spirit, or on a chain for a dressier look. It is a pendant with presence, to be worn alone, over an open collar or a plain jumper.
A carving has hollows, and it is they that hold dust and creams. A soft toothbrush, warm soapy water, a rinse and a thorough drying are enough to keep it clean. Store it in its pouch, apart: other jewellery scratches a polish. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Spinach green
Stone shape
Carving in the round
Motif
Turtle
Mounting
None
Metal
None
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
None, jade only
Mineral family
Calcic amphibole
Hardness (Mohs)
6 to 6.5
Reference density
2.90 to 3.03 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the jade turtle
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. None of it is proven. These are customs and beliefs, old and documented, which 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 claim no effect for this one.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade is associated with qualities of character rather than effects on the body: uprightness, constancy, restraint. It is the best documented meaning of them all.
The turtle that carries stelesChinese legend makes the Bixi, a turtle with a dragon's head, one of the nine sons of the dragon. It is he who is carved at the foot of the great stone steles, which he has carried on his back for centuries.
The Black Turtle of the NorthAmong the four animals that guard the cardinal points in Chinese cosmology, the North falls to the Black Turtle. There it is the figure of endurance and of what lasts.
Long lifeBecause it lives long and moves without hurrying, the turtle has been a symbol of long life in China since antiquity, and a frequent motif on gifts made to elders.
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.
