White jade necklace, a strand of round nephrite beads in a milky white, clearly translucent, cylindrical metal clasp. The length is chosen above the buy button.
It is the hardest reference to judge in the catalogue, and I prefer to write it: white, so the gap in density with marble is thin; strung, so not weighable.
My method does not apply here, and I do not pretend otherwise. This page gives instead what is left to look at, and what it is worth.
A white jade necklace strung as a strand of round nephrite beads, a milky white and clearly translucent, closed by a small cylindrical metal clasp. The beads are of an even diameter and the white is almost identical from one to the next.
In four lines
A strand of round nephrite beads, milky white and translucent.
Cylindrical metal clasp, alloy not specified by my supplier.
White and strung: no figure will be published on this reference.
This page explains why white is the hardest colour to judge.
Why white is the hardest colour
On a green, the gap in density between jade and its imitations is comfortable: serpentine sits around 2.6, quartzite around 2.65, nephrite starts at 2.90. A kitchen scale is enough to separate them.
On a white, the imitation is no longer called serpentine or dyed quartzite: nobody dyes a stone white. It is called dolomitic marble, often sold under flattering geographic names, and its density sits around 2.85. Against 2.90 for the bottom of the nephrite range: four or five hundredths of a gap, where green offers thirty.
And on this one, the scale will not even speak: a strung strand cannot be weighed, the clasp being metal and the thread absorbing water. I do not cut a necklace to weigh a bead. In other words, my method does not apply here, and I am not going to pretend otherwise in order to sell a piece. The three limits of the weighing.
What is left to look at, and what it is worth
What the scale loses, the eye partly recovers on this colour. A white nephrite is translucent over a few millimetres: held before a lamp, the bead lights up and the light passes through, softening. A marble is more opaque, its light stops sooner, and it shows crystalline grains instead, like sugar.
Look also at the drill hole, the only place where the inside of the stone is visible, and at the grain against the light: nephrite is made of interlocking fibres, which often gives a cloudy or slightly fibrous look in the mass. None of these signs is a proof, and I will not present them as such. The checks that need no equipment.
White, an old colour
Today’s market overvalues intense green. Ancient China placed white jade very high, and for centuries: jadeite, the stone of clear greens, only reaches China in the 18th century, and everything before that is nephrite. The hierarchy of colours is a matter of period, not of nature. The colours of jade.
The two minerals are moreover not related at all: jadeite is a pyroxene, nephrite an amphibole, and it was a Frenchman who separated them, Alexis Damour, in 1863. What sets them apart.
The thread, and why it gets redone
On a strand worn often, the thread wears out before the stone: that is normal, and any jeweller can redo it. A necklace that lengthens or whose beads start to turn freely is a necklace to restring. The length is chosen above the buy button.
On a white, one more precaution: oils and cosmetics mark a pale stone more than a dark one. Put the necklace on after the perfume and the cream, never before, and store it flat. Warm water, a mild soap, a soft cloth. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Color
White
Stone shape
Round beads
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Bead strand
Metal
Silver tone, alloy not stated
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Women
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 necklace
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.
The strand of beadsThe necklace of round beads is a late form, come from modern trade, whereas the pierced disc is attested from the Neolithic. The age of the stone is not the age of the object.
The stone worn against the skinJade worn at the neck takes the temperature of the body in a few minutes and keeps it. That is a physical property, conductivity, and several traditions have made something quite different of it. I stay with the first.
White, an old colourAncient China placed white jade very high, long before the clear greens the market seeks today: jadeite only reaches China in the 18th century. The hierarchy of colours is therefore a matter of period, not of nature.
The scholar's stoneIn 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, and it is nephrite that the ancient texts point to, jadeite reaching China only in the 18th century.
Shipped within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from the day it ships. I keep no buffer stock, and I will not promise a date I cannot meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 no matter the destination, and free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The exact amount shows in your cart before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece leaves in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not about presentation: jade’s hardness is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust rates 7. Two pieces of jewelry that travel together arrive scratched.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No reason needed. One email opens a return, and there is no form to fill out. Return shipping is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Getting the size wrong is the leading cause of returns in this category, and jade cannot be resized the way a solid metal band can. Two minutes of measuring almost always prevents it. The size guide.
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 cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier cannot tell me, and the weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The treatment information page.
The Scratch, and Where It Comes From
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it possible to turn it into axes 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 rates 7, and that is what dulls a jade, not impacts. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and lotion, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening, and sports, where the hard knocks happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone does: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I am French, from Morbihan in Brittany, and I live in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I carve nothing, and I do not do the metalwork myself. What I bring is the sorting, and with this material the sorting decides everything.
I am not a gemologist, a lapidary, or a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not 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, and not every piece. I never handle the piece that ships to you, and I would rather say so plainly than let anyone believe otherwise. The method, with its three limitations.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier cannot tell me, and neither can the scale: it establishes the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only laboratory infrared spectroscopy would settle the question, and I do not have that testing done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information page.
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 October 7, 2016. What applies today dates from April 8, 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but an American is not allowed to do business with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. I run one supply chain for ten markets, and it has to stand up to the strictest one. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin policy.
