Oval green jade ring: a large domed cabochon, closed set in a silver tone mount, filling the whole knuckle.
The closed setting shuts the stone inside a folded collar: nothing catches, nothing can work loose. It is the safest mount for a stone worn often.
The record on this page will stay empty, and I write that rather than hide it: a closed setting forbids taking the stone out, so weighing it, and I am not going to damage a ring for a figure.
An oval green jade ring: a large domed cabochon, closed set in a silver tone mount, filling the whole knuckle. It is the most demonstrative piece in the ring section, and the only one whose stone is seen from across a room.
In four lines
A large oval cabochon, domed and polished solid, with no facet.
Closed set in a silver tone mount: nothing catches, nothing can fall out.
The stone fills the knuckle, this is a ring that is noticed.
The record will stay empty: a closed setting forbids weighing.
Why this page will carry no figure
Everywhere else on this site I order an example, weigh it in air then in water, and publish the density. Here I will not, and it is better to say so frankly than to leave the line empty without explanation.
The reason is mechanical. The closed setting shuts the stone inside a metal collar folded over its whole rim. To weigh it you would have to take it out, that is to open the collar, which deforms the mount and cannot be put right cleanly. I am not going to damage a ring to get a figure.
So the Mineral line of this page says what it knows, that is what my supplier announces, and nothing more. It is the least verifiable case in the catalogue, and it is flagged as such. Solid band rings, by contrast, weigh without difficulty: the solid band jade ring is one.
The cabochon, and what it reveals of the stone
A cabochon is a stone domed and polished, with no facet. It is the cut that suits stones that are translucent but not transparent, like jade: facets would only break the light without adding anything, whereas a dome makes it travel under the surface.
This one is large, a frank and deep green, with a reflection that moves in a soft band when you turn your hand. That glide is a good sign: on a resin or a glass the reflection stays sharp and local, because nothing scatters inside.
Look also at the rim of the cabochon, where it meets the metal. That is the thinnest place, so the one where daylight passes best. Total opacity all the way round would be a bad sign. The checks that need no equipment.
A ring that wears alone
With a cabochon this size there is no stacking possible: it takes the whole hand, and any other ring on the same finger is one too many. It is an evening piece, or an everyday piece for someone who wears only one.
The closed setting has a real daily advantage: no claw stands proud, so nothing catches a jumper and nothing works loose over time. It is the safest mount there is for a stone worn often.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes 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.
The archer's ringThe oldest Chinese jade ring is not an ornament: it is the thumb ring that protected an archer's hand from the bowstring. It became a mark of rank under the Qing, worn by men who had never drawn a bow.
The cabochon, an old cutDoming and polishing a stone without faceting it is the oldest way of cutting one, and the only one that suits jade: its fibrous structure does not return light the way a transparent crystal does, so a facet would serve no purpose.
A stone worn against the skinChinese usage holds that jade worn every day becomes warmer and brighter with the years. What changes is the surface, polished by friction and by the natural oils of the skin: the effect is real, the explanation is mechanical. What tradition puts into a jade bracelet.
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.
