Oval jade pendant: a stone cut as a full oval, a Chinese character carved in relief at the centre and flowering branches in hollow around it. Knotted to a strand of green and black beads.
I do not translate the character: my supplier does not name it and the stroke is stylised. The record writes it as not identified rather than inventing a likely meaning.
The beads of the strand are not announced as jade, and the page says so. The stone unties, so it weighs: the record will be published. Why I write it down.
An oval jade pendant: a stone cut as a full oval, a Chinese character carved in relief at the centre and flowering branches around it, taken up in hollow. The edges are polished and free of any ridge. It is knotted to a strand of green and black beads.
In four lines
A full oval, a Chinese character carved in relief at the centre.
Flowering branches taken up in hollow all around the character.
Edges polished without a ridge, back smooth: easy against the skin.
The record will be published: the stone unties, so it weighs.
A character I will not translate
The centre of the stone carries a Chinese character in relief, framed by flowering branches. It is stylised, in a hand close to seal script, where the strokes are stretched and folded to fill the space. It is very handsome, and that is also what makes it hard to read with certainty.
Many shops would announce longevity or happiness without hesitating, because those are the two commonest characters on this kind of plaque and the odds are on their side. I am not going to sell a probability as a certainty. My supplier does not name it, and the record writes it as not identified.
If you read Chinese, the close up photograph in the gallery shows the whole stroke, and you will settle it better than I can. If you do not, simply know that the motif carries a wish, as the vast majority of characters engraved on jade do.
The flowering branches, and what they frame
Branches in flower run around the character, cut in hollow and far less prominent than it is. The hierarchy is deliberate: the character is the subject, the flowers are the frame, and the relief says so before you can even read it.
This kind of composition, a word at the centre and a plant border around it, has been found on jade plaques since the Qing. The flowers are rarely identifiable as a species: they are flowers in general, a motif of prosperity rather than a botanical portrait.
The hollow engraving has a practical advantage: it does not wear like a relief. The edges of the character will soften with rubbing after years of wear, and that is normal. The motifs most often found on these stones.
What the stone is, and what remains to be established
The oval is a medium green, even, with slightly paler zones towards the edges. The full cut, with no opening and no piercing, leaves a lot of material, which gives a piece that is dense in the hand for a fairly modest surface.
That density is precisely what has to be measured. What is sold under the name jade is very often serpentine, around 2.6, or dyed quartzite, around 2.65, while nephrite starts at 2.90. On this reference the measurement is possible, since the knot undoes.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to engraved characters 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, not a formulaThe characters engraved on jade are almost always wishes: long life, happiness, prosperity, double happiness for a wedding. They are given as one speaks a favourable word, and nobody expects a mechanical effect from them.
Seal scriptThe stretched and folded stroke of this kind of engraving imitates the stone seals whose use goes back to the Qin. It was already an archaic script under the Han, kept for its ceremonial value: it marks a careful object, not an ancient one.
The flower as a crownFraming a word with flowers is a convention of Chinese ornament, found on porcelain as on jade plaques. The flowers there speak of plenty, and they mainly serve to hold the character at the centre of the eye.
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.
