Jade fish pendant: a fish carved in the round, the scales taken up with the burin and the veils of the tail opening like a fan. Knotted head up to a strand of green and black beads.
This is not an engraved plaque but a sculpture in volume, worked on both faces. It has weight in the hand, and it is meant to be looked at from every angle.
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.
A jade fish pendant: a fish carved in the round, eyes standing proud, body covered in scales taken up with the burin, and the veils of the tail opening like a fan below the belly. It is knotted head up to a strand of green and black beads.
In four lines
A fish carved in the round, not engraved on a plaque.
Scales taken up with the burin, tail veils opening like a fan.
Deep green, and thick: the piece has volume in the hand.
The record will be published: the stone unties, so it weighs.
A carving in volume, and what that changes
Most jade pendants are plaques: one worked face, a flat back. This one is carved in the round, that is to say a three dimensional sculpture meant to be looked at from every angle. The fish’s back is domed, the flanks are curved, and the veils of the tail stand clear of the body.
That calls for a thicker block, so more material, and longer work: each veil was released separately. It is also what makes the piece heavier than it looks in a photograph, and that weight is felt at the neck.
The back is not neglected either: the scales continue there, a little more summarily, and the piece stays pleasant to turn between the fingers. This is the kind of jewel you handle.
A goldfish, not a carp
The subject is recognised by two details: the globular eyes standing out of the skull, and the many veiled tail opening like a fan. This is no river carp, it is an ornamental goldfish, the kind bred in ponds since the Song dynasty.
The distinction matters to anyone buying for the motif. The carp swimming upstream is an image of effort and of success in examinations. The goldfish is an image of ease and domestic plenty, and it carries no particular message.
The shape is common in Chinese jade, but rarely well done: many cheap pieces make do with an almond body and two strokes for the fins. Here the work on the veils bears comparison. The motifs most often found on these stones.
What the stone is, and what remains to be established
The green is frank and fairly deep, with more translucent zones along the ridges of the veils where the stone thins. That translucency at the edge is a good sign, but it proves nothing on its own: serpentine shows it too.
On this reference the measurement is possible, since the knot undoes and the stone weighs bare. The figure will be published in the record, with its date, and it will say jadeite, nephrite, or something else.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the fish 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 pun, not a symbolThe word for fish, yu, is pronounced like the word for surplus. May every year bring surplus is said with a fish on a New Year print. The motif comes from a homophony, not from a belief about the animal.
The goldfish and goldThe goldfish is called jinyu, literally gold fish, which doubles the pun: plenty and precious metal in the same name. It is one reason for its constant presence in Chinese interiors.
The carp and the dragon gateA legend has it that a carp swimming up the Yellow River and clearing the Dragon Gate turns into a dragon. The image has served for centuries to speak of the imperial examinations, then of exams in general. It holds for the carp, not for the goldfish.
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.
Shipped within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from the day it ships. I keep no buffer stock, and I will not promise a date I cannot meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 no matter the destination, and free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The exact amount shows in your cart before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece leaves in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not about presentation: jade’s hardness is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust rates 7. Two pieces of jewelry that travel together arrive scratched.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No reason needed. One email opens a return, and there is no form to fill out. Return shipping 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 cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier cannot tell me, and the weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The treatment information page.
The Scratch, and Where It Comes From
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it possible to turn it into axes 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 rates 7, and that is what dulls a jade, not impacts. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and lotion, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening, and sports, where the hard knocks happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone does: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I am French, from Morbihan in Brittany, and I live in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I carve nothing, and I do not do the metalwork myself. What I bring is the sorting, and with this material the sorting decides everything.
I am not a gemologist, a lapidary, or a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not 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, and not every piece. I never handle the piece that ships to you, and I would rather say so plainly than let anyone believe otherwise. The method, with its three limitations.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier cannot tell me, and neither can the scale: it establishes the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only laboratory infrared spectroscopy would settle the question, and I do not have that testing done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information page.
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 October 7, 2016. What applies today dates from April 8, 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but an American is not allowed to do business with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. I run one supply chain for ten markets, and it has to stand up to the strictest one. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin policy.
