White jade ruyi necklace: the stone cut as a ruyi head, that coiled scroll seen at the end of Chinese sceptres, capped with an engraved gilt plate that serves as the bail. Fine chain.
The word ruyi translates as as you wish. The object serves no purpose and commands nothing: it formulates a wish, and that is its whole definition.
On a white the weighing separates less clearly: dolomitic marble reaches 2.85, nephrite starts at 2.90. The page explains how I mean to settle it. Why I write it down.
A white jade ruyi necklace: the stone is cut as a ruyi head, that scroll coiled on itself seen at the end of Chinese sceptres, and capped with an engraved gilt plate that serves as the bail. The chain is fine, and the piece is worn high on the neck.
In four lines
The stone is cut as a ruyi head, the scroll of the sceptres.
An engraved gilt cap, which serves as the bail.
Translucent white, fine chain: it is worn high on the neck.
The record will depend on the cap: it must come off without forcing.
The ruyi, an object before it was a motif
This scroll is not an abstract ornament. It is the head of a ruyi, a Chinese court sceptre some thirty centimetres long, examples of which in jade, wood or ivory were given at imperial birthdays and weddings.
The name translates as as you wish, and that is the whole sense of the object: it serves no purpose, it commands nothing, it formulates a wish. Its origin is more prosaic, since it is often seen as the descendant of a back scratcher with a curved handle.
The shape of the head comes from the lingzhi, the mushroom of immortality of the Taoist pharmacopoeia, whose cap coils in exactly that way. That is why it is found everywhere in Chinese ornament, at the end of a cloud as at the top of a lock plate.
A white, and why the weighing is more delicate here
On a deep green, density separates cleanly: serpentine around 2.6, quartzite around 2.65, nephrite from 2.90. The gap is frank. On a white a fourth candidate invites itself in: dolomitic marble, sold under the name of white jade, which reaches 2.85.
2.85 against 2.90, the margin is too thin to conclude on the figure alone. What you look at then is the grain in grazing light: a marble shows crystalline patches that sparkle in facets, a nephrite shows an even fibrous felting.
Both observations will be published together in the record, with their date. The gilt cap must still come off without forcing, and that is the first thing I will check. The method, with its three limits.
A fitted cap, and what it implies
The gilt plate is not set around the stone: it caps it from above and continues into the bail. It is a light mounting, which leaves the scroll entirely visible and adds almost no weight to the piece.
The metal is gold tone, not hallmarked by my supplier. So I write it as gold tone, and not gold plated: a plating is a thickness, so a figure, and I do not invent it. Gilding on an engraved piece wears first at the top of the reliefs.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the ruyi and to jade
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. Nothing here is demonstrated. These are customs and beliefs, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece in this shop is sold as a remedy, and I claim no effect for this one.
As you wishThat is the literal translation of ruyi, and it is all the object means. They were given at imperial birthdays, at weddings and at appointments to office, in pairs or in sets of nine, and their value lay in the material as much as in the gesture.
A mushroom behind the scrollThe coiled head takes up the cap of the lingzhi, the mushroom the Taoist pharmacopoeia associates with long life. That is why the motif is found on lock plates, clouds and borders throughout Chinese ornament.
A sceptre that commands nothingUnlike the Western sceptre, the ruyi is the insignia of no power. It is an object for the hand, held while speaking and laid on a table. Its uselessness is part of its definition.
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.
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.
The wrong size is the main reason for a return 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.
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.
