White jade and mother of pearl earrings: a pierced gilt medallion set with a small mother of pearl flower, from which a magnolia bud carved in a white stone hangs. Lever back fastening.
Two white materials that do not look alike: mother of pearl irises and changes with the angle, the stone stays an even white and lets the light in.
Mother of pearl is soft and dislikes perfumes: that is the only precaution that counts on this pair. Why I write it down.
White jade and mother of pearl earrings: a gilt medallion pierced with scrollwork, set with a small white mother of pearl flower, from which a magnolia bud carved in a white stone hangs. They close with a lever back and fall straight along the neck.
In four lines
A magnolia bud carved in the round from a white stone.
A gilt medallion pierced with scrollwork, a fitted mother of pearl flower.
Lever back fastening: they cannot fall off on their own.
The record will be published, with an observation of grain as well as the figure.
Two white materials, and they do not look alike
The small flower set on the medallion is mother of pearl, that is to say the inner layer of a shell: an organic material of animal origin, not a mineral. The bud hanging below is the stone.
Side by side the difference shows: mother of pearl has iridescent reflections that change with the angle, a white turning in turn towards pink and blue, while the stone stays an even and deep white. One returns the light at the surface, the other lets it in.
Mother of pearl has its own constraints, and they are not those of jade. It is soft, it scratches with a fingernail, and it stands perfumes and lacquers badly. Avoid spraying anything onto it, that is the only precaution that counts on this pair.
The magnolia bud, and why that motif
The hanging shape is not a drop: it is a closed magnolia bud, recognisable by its overlapping petals that wrap in a spiral and by its slightly curved tip. The volume is carved from the mass, not cut out.
The magnolia is one of the commonest floral motifs in Chinese jade, for a reason of language as much as of beauty: its name enters an expression that speaks of wealth and elegance. It is often engraved together with the peony.
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. 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.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the magnolia 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 word of wealthThe Chinese name of the magnolia enters a formula of good wishes that associates the flower with opulence and elegance. As with many Chinese motifs, the link passes through the language and not through the plant.
Mother of pearl and jadeThe two materials long travelled together in furniture and scholars' objects, where mother of pearl inlaid in lacquered wood made the pale counterpart of the stones. The pairing comes from cabinetmaking.
Mutton fat whiteOld Chinese taste placed at the summit the white nephrites of Xinjiang, called mutton fat. The hierarchy reversed in the eighteenth century with the arrival of the green jadeites from Burma.
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.
Dispatch within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no stock in reserve, and I will not promise a date I could not meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 whatever the destination, free on orders over €47 to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount is shown in your basket before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece travels in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not a question of presentation: the hardness of jade is unremarkable, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together arrive marked.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No need to give a reason. An email is enough to open a return; there is no form to fill in. Return postage is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
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 cleaners, no steam, no solvents, no heat source. This is not a precaution for show: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier does not know it, and weighing identifies the mineral without telling me anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands 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 difficult to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it usable for axe heads in the Neolithic. Its hardness, by contrast, is unremarkable, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7: that is what dulls a 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 knocks against hard edges are common. 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. French, from Morbihan, living in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them mounted: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and the metalwork is not done by my hand. What I bring is the selection, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am not a gemmologist, not a lapidary, not a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before a listing goes online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unmounted, 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 listing, and not every piece. I do not handle the piece that is sent to you, and I would rather write that down than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier does not know it, and the scales do not tell me: they identify the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I do not have that done. So you will never read “Grade A jadeite”, “Type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
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 7 October 2016. What applies today dates from 8 April 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but a US person is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. A single supply chain serves ten markets, so it has to hold up in the most demanding of them. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin charter.
