A men’s jade pendant, sober and assertive: a large pierced disc, thick, in a spinach green so dark it looks black in the shade, marbled with bright green. It is threaded on a black braided cord, beneath two black beads engraved with a silver cloud.
In four lines
A large pierced disc, thick, in an almost black green.
A black braided cord, adjustable, with no metal at all on the stone.
Two black beads engraved with a cloud, the Chinese motif of good omen.
No size to choose: a simple gift for a man.
A man’s jade, sober and assertive
This men’s jade pendant is nothing like a delicate piece of jewellery. It is a piece with character: a wide, thick disc with a domed edge, in a green so deep it reads almost as black. Worn on the chest, it is seen without shining: a discreet piece that still has presence.
Its shape, a disc pierced at the centre, is one of the oldest in Chinese jade. Here an inner ring in slight relief underlines the hole and gives the disc a second line, more graphic.
A green so dark it looks black
In the shade, the stone seems black. In the light, it reveals itself: a deep spinach green, run through with stretches of brighter green and darker patches, with small light points here and there. Every disc has its own drawing, and none quite resembles another.
The polish is bright on the domed faces: when you move, a reflection slides over the stone and brings out the green where only black could be seen.
The cord and the two cloud beads
The disc hangs from a black braided cord, passed through the central hole and knotted just above it. No metal touches the stone. Higher up, two black beads, one cylindrical, the other round, each carry a cloud engraved in silver. The cylindrical bead slides along the cord to adjust the length: you wear it at the collar or lower on the chest.
What to wear it with
Over a white or black tee shirt, an open shirt, a crew neck jumper: black and dark green go with everything, and above all with simple outfits. It works with a steel watch as with a leather bracelet, and is worn alone, with no other jewellery around it.
On a corded pendant, it is the cord that wears out first, long before the stone. Take it off for the shower, the pool and sport: sweat and water tire it. When it weakens, it is easily replaced. For the stone, warm water, a mild soap, a soft cloth. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail, and hardness and toughness.
Additional information
Stone
Jadeite or nephrite, not resolved
Colour
Spinach green
Stone shape
Pierced disc
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Braided cord
Metal
None
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Men
Paired stones
Black beads, not identified
Mineral family
Calcic amphibole, Sodium aluminium pyroxene
Hardness (Mohs)
6 to 7
Reference density
2.90 to 3.36 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to jade worn by a man
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. None of it is proven. These are customs and beliefs, old and documented, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment, and I claim no effect for this one.
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.
The gentleman does not part with his jadeThe Book of Rites, one of the Confucian classics, says that a man of worth does not part with his jade without reason. The stone worn on the person is there a reminder of the conduct one sets oneself.
The cloud of good omenThe scrolling motif engraved on the two beads of the cord is the auspicious cloud of Chinese art. It is found on court robes, on furniture and on jewellery, as a wish for good fortune.
Jade in the masculineFor centuries, in China, jade pendants were worn at men’s belts, and their chime accompanied the walk. Jade only became mainly feminine in the West.
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.
