Green jade ruyi necklace: the same coiled scroll as the white model, cut from a single piece in a deep green stone, under a pierced gilt cap. Fine chain.
It is the version whose record will be the clearest: on a deep green the weighing settles the matter without discussion, where a white leaves a margin of five hundredths.
The spiral lightens where the stone thins, which is the behaviour of a colour present in the mass. Why I write it down.
A green jade ruyi necklace: the same coiled scroll as the white model, cut from a single piece in a deep green stone, under a gilt cap pierced with a circular motif. The chain is fine, and the scroll sits flat on the top of the chest.
In four lines
The ruyi head, cut from a single piece in a green stone.
A gilt cap pierced with a circular motif, which serves as the bail.
A deep green with paler zones within the scroll.
The record will be published if the cap comes off without forcing.
The same piece, and a stone that reads better
It is the twin of the white jade ruyi necklace: same cut, same cap, same chain, only the stone changes. And that change has a very concrete consequence that goes beyond taste.
On a white the weighing separates badly, because the dolomitic marble sold under the name of white jade reaches 2.85 when nephrite starts at 2.90. On a deep green the candidates are serpentine around 2.6 and quartzite around 2.65: the gap is frank.
In other words, this green version is the one whose record will be the clearest. If you are hesitating between the two and certainty matters to you, that is an argument.
A scroll that reads in the light
The stone is not an even green: the spiral is paler where it thins, and the body of the scroll keeps a denser tint. That gradation follows the thickness, which is the behaviour of a colour present in the mass rather than laid on the surface.
It is a good sign, and it deserves flagging, but it is not a proof: some serpentines behave the same way. What will settle it remains the figure. The checks that need no equipment.
The scroll is polished on both faces, and the central coil is drilled right through, so the light passes through it. Held against the light, the piece shows everything there is to see of the grain.
A fitted cap, and what it implies
The gilt plate caps the stone from above and continues into the bail. It is pierced with a circular motif, of the kind engraved on the borders of Chinese furniture, and it adds almost no weight.
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. On a pierced piece, gilding goes first from the edges.
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.
A wish held in the handThe ruyi is a court sceptre given at birthdays, weddings and appointments to office. Its name translates as as you wish, and it has never had any function other than carrying that wish.
By ninesImperial gifts readily counted nine ruyi, nine being the sovereign's number because it is the last before the change of decade. The Qing inventories record hundreds of them, in every material.
Green and whiteOld Chinese taste placed the white jades called mutton fat above the greens, and the hierarchy reversed with the arrival of Burmese jadeite in the eighteenth century. The two versions of this necklace tell that shift of taste.
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.
