Jade Pi Xiu, carved in high relief in vivid spinach-green nephrite: a legendary creature coiled around itself, with scales, flame-shaped scrolls and a large round pearl.
Pierced and delivered bare, without a cord: to set on a desk like a small sculpture, or to wear on a thick cord.
A jade Pi Xiu deeply carved in nephrite of a vivid spinach green: a legendary creature coiled around itself, covered in scales, surrounded by flame-shaped scrolls, with a large round pearl at its side. The piece is pierced and delivered bare.
In four lines
A Pi Xiu carved in high relief, scales and scrolls.
A vivid spinach green, luminous on the raised parts.
Pierced, to set on a desk or wear on a cord.
Delivered bare: no cord included.
A legendary creature, deeply carved
This jade Pi Xiu is a carving you never finish looking at. The body coils around itself in a tight spiral; each scale is cut as a small dome, the scrolls of the mane and wings curl into flames, and a large round pearl, smooth and bright, rests at its side.
The carver cut deep into the stone: the hollows stay in shadow, the polished reliefs return the light, and the green shifts as soon as you turn the piece between your fingers.
A luminous spinach green
The nephrite is a clear, saturated spinach green. On the finest reliefs, light passes through it and makes it look almost translucent; in the hollows, the green deepens. You can also see small dark dots, common in nephrites of this green, which give the stone depth.
The Pi Xiu, a motif of Chinese carving
The Pi Xiu is a creature from Chinese mythology, a composite beast that is part lion, part dragon. It has no living model, and every carver interprets it in their own way: stocky or coiled, winged or covered in flames, alone or with a pearl. This one chose the spiral, which gives the piece a compact shape that feels good in the hand.
To set down, or to wear
The piece is pierced: it can be worn on a thick cord or a leather lace of your choice, since it arrives bare. Pick a strong cord: all the weight rests on the drill hole, and a thread that is too thin would wear it down over time.
It can also remain an object: set on a desk, a shelf or in a display case, it is looked at like a small sculpture, and it is easy to pick up. Jade for men, and ideas for giving jade.
Why nephrite can be carved so finely
Nephrite is made of interwoven fibers that give it exceptional toughness: it can be hollowed out, drilled and openworked without shattering. That is what makes such crisp scales and such fine scrolls possible. Jadeite or nephrite, what sets them apart, and hardness and toughness.
Caring for it
The hollows of a carving collect dust: a very soft brush, a little lukewarm soapy water, a rinse and thorough drying, drill holes included. Never ultrasonic cleaners, steam or solvents. Store it separately, in its pouch. Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Spinach green
Stone shape
Carving in the round
Motif
Pi Xiu
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 history says about the Pi Xiu
What follows shifts register, and I say so rather than blending it into the rest of the page. None of it is proven. These are customs and images, old and documented, that I report because they are part of the history of this motif. No object in this shop is sold as a remedy or as a talisman, and I attribute no effect to this one.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade is associated with qualities of character rather than effects on the body: integrity, constancy, restraint. It is the best documented meaning of all.
The winged beasts of the tombsNear Nanjing, along the avenues that led to imperial tombs of the 5th and 6th centuries, large winged beasts carved in stone still stand. They are the distant ancestors of the creatures carved in jade today.
A composite bestiaryChina filled its stories with creatures made of several animals: the dragon, the phoenix, the qilin, the Pi Xiu. None has a living model, and that is what leaves carvers so much freedom.
Often in pairsIn ancient art, these beasts were often shown in pairs, one with a single horn, the other with two, on either side of an avenue or a gate.
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.
