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.
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.
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.
