Real jade necklace, a strand of graduated round beads: small at the nape, they grow up to the central bead. A dark spinach green, mirror polished.
The length is chosen above the buy button. On a graduated strand, each bead has its place: have it restrung in order the day the thread tires.
Real means jadeite or nephrite, never serpentine or dyed quartzite. Strung on thread, so not weighable, and treatment status not determined. Why I write it.
A real jade necklace strung as a strand of graduated round beads: small at the nape, they grow steadily up to the central bead. The green is dark and deep, the one called spinach green, with a mirror polish that lights a point of light on every bead.
In four lines
A strand of graduated round beads, from the nape to the central bead.
A dark spinach green, mirror polished, slightly translucent at the edges.
Real means jadeite or nephrite, never serpentine or dyed quartzite.
Strung on thread, so not weighable: no figure will be published, and this page says so.
What real means here, and what it does not mean
On this site, a real jade necklace is a necklace whose beads are jadeite or nephrite, and not serpentine sold under the name “new jade” or “Korean jade”, nor dyed quartzite sold as “Malaysia jade”. None of those names designates jade.
Real never sets the untreated against the treated. That is the most widespread confusion on the market, and it suits everybody except the buyer. The treatment status of these beads is not determined, it is written in the record, and no word on this page suggests otherwise. What the letters A, B and C cover.
The graduation, and what it asks for
The beads are not all the same diameter: they increase steadily from the nape to the centre of the strand. It is an old stringing, and it has a practical as well as an aesthetic reason: the weight concentrates where the neck carries it best, and the necklace lies flat instead of rolling.
In exchange it demands severe sorting. On a graduated strand, each bead must find its place to a tenth of a millimetre, and the colour has to follow. That is why a graduated strand costs more than a strand of equal beads, for the same material.
Spinach green, and what it points to
This dark green, a little bottle, a little cooked leaf, is the typical green of nephrite: it comes from iron. The green of jadeite comes from chromium and rings clearer, more brilliant. The two minerals are not related at all, jadeite is a pyroxene and nephrite an amphibole, and it was a Frenchman who separated them, Alexis Damour, in 1863. What sets them apart.
Colour points, it does not prove: so this page writes jadeite or nephrite, and waits for the weighing to settle it, which a strung strand will not allow here. What you can look at yourself, on the other hand, is the drill hole: on a dyed stone, the dye concentrates there and darkens the rim around it. The checks that need no equipment.
The thread, and why it gets redone
On a strand worn often, the thread wears out before the stone: that is normal, and any jeweller can redo it. A necklace that lengthens, whose beads start to turn freely or whose knots open, is a necklace to restring. On a graduated strand, have it redone in order, each bead in its place.
Store it flat rather than hanging, and put it on after the perfume, never before. Storing a jade piece.
Additional information
Stone
Jadeite or nephrite, not resolved
Colour
Spinach green
Stone shape
Round beads
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Bead strand
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
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 a jade necklace
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.
The stone worn against the skinJade worn at the neck takes the temperature of the body in a few minutes and keeps it. That is a physical property, conductivity, and several traditions have made something quite different of it. I stay with the first.
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 strand of beadsThe necklace of round beads is a late form, come from modern trade, whereas the pierced disc and the pendant are attested from the Neolithic. The age of the stone is not the age of the object.
The graduated strandStringing with beads growing towards the centre is found in several jewellery traditions, in Asia as elsewhere. It has been read as a figure of progression; it is first of all a way of balancing the weight on the neck.
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.
