Jade dragon pendant, carved in high relief: the body coils over itself, the scales are hollowed one by one, whiskers and claws stand clear of the ground.
Drilled and delivered bare, with no cord and no chain. Take a slightly thick cord: the weight bears on the drill hole, and too fine a thread saws the stone over time.
No metal touches the stone: it is weighable, and the figure will be published here with its date. Treatment status not determined.
A jade dragon pendant carved in high relief: the body coils over itself, the scales are cut one by one, the whiskers and the claws stand clear of the ground. The green is clear, lighter on the ridges of the relief, denser in the hollows. The piece is drilled and delivered bare.
In four lines
Carving in high relief, scales cut out, whiskers and claws standing clear.
Drilled and delivered bare: no metal, no glue, no cord supplied.
Bare stone, therefore weighable: the figure will be published here, with its date.
A deep relief chips at its fine edges: that is where it needs protecting.
A high relief, and what it demands of the material
On this piece, the carver went far below the surface: the dragon’s body passes behind itself, the whiskers stand clear of the ground, and the scales are hollowed one by one. That work is only possible on a very tough material.
Jade owes its toughness to a structure of interlocking crystals that stops a crack from spreading: that is what made polished axes possible in the Neolithic, and that is what allows a claw to be freed here without the piece splitting. Its hardness, on the other hand, stays ordinary, 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The difference between hardness and toughness.
The practical consequence, and it counts on this piece more than on any other in the catalogue: it is the fine edges that suffer. A knock will not split the dragon, it will chip a whisker or the tip of a claw. A pouch for it alone, and not at the bottom of a bag.
The hollows and the reliefs, and what to look at there
The green looks lighter on the ridges and denser in the hollows. That contrast is optics, not a clue: on any carved and polished stone, the bumps return the light and the hollows stay in shadow.
What would deserve attention is different: a colour that follows a network of cracks rather than the shape, or that concentrates at the bottom of the chisel hollows, where a dye lodges best. On this piece, the green advances in broad, irregular patches, which is the opposite of the warning signal, without proving anything for all that. The treatment status stays not determined. The checks that need no equipment.
It is delivered bare, and it will need a cord
The piece is drilled with two holes and arrives with no cord and no chain. It is a choice I flag rather than leave you to discover: any braided jewellery cord suits, and it can be replaced when it wears, which always happens before the stone moves. Thread and cord on a jade piece.
On a heavy carved piece, take a slightly thick cord: the weight bears on the drill hole, and too fine a thread saws the stone over time. Warm water, a mild soap, a very soft brush for the hollows. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent: since the treatment status is unknown, any resin would not stand it. Care in detail.
Why I write jade dragon pendant, and not simply green stone dragon
Because the word jade on its own does not say much, and because the dragon is precisely the motif most often carved in something else. What is sold under this name is very often serpentine, labelled “new jade” or “Korean jade”, or dyed quartzite, sold as “Malaysia jade”. None of those names designates jade.
Serpentine is also much softer, around 3 to 4 on the Mohs scale against 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, which makes it easier to carve: that is one of the reasons it dominates the market for heavily worked pieces. Here the scale will settle it, because the stone is bare. I weigh, I do not certify.
Additional information
Stone
Jadéite
Colour
Clear green
Stone shape
Carving in the round
Motif
Dragon
Mounting
None
Metal
None
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
None, jade only
Mineral family
Sodium aluminium pyroxene
Hardness (Mohs)
6.5 to 7
Reference density
3.25 to 3.36 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the jade dragon
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 and of this motif. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment, and I claim no effect for this one.
The Chinese dragon is not the Western oneThe Chinese long is a creature of water and sky, tied to rain and to rivers, without the treasure-guarding role or the evil charge of the European dragon. The two figures do not share a history.
An emblem of rankUnder the imperial dynasties, the number of claws on the dragon was regulated by the rank of whoever wore it. It is one of the rare cases where the iconography of jade is documented by administrative texts.
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 dragon and jadeThe motif is attested on Chinese jades from the Neolithic, long before it became the imperial emblem we know. Its ancient C shape, moreover, looks nothing like this one.
Dispatch within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no stock in reserve, and I will not promise a date I could not meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 whatever the destination, free on orders over €47 to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount is shown in your basket before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece travels in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not a question of presentation: the hardness of jade is unremarkable, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together arrive marked.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No need to give a reason. An email is enough to open a return; there is no form to fill in. Return postage 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 cleaners, no steam, no solvents, no heat source. This is not a precaution for show: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier does not know it, and weighing identifies the mineral without telling me anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands 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 difficult to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it usable for axe heads in the Neolithic. Its hardness, by contrast, is unremarkable, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7: that is what dulls a 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 knocks against hard edges are common. 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. French, from Morbihan, living in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them mounted: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and the metalwork is not done by my hand. What I bring is the selection, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am not a gemmologist, not a lapidary, not a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before a listing goes online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unmounted, 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 listing, and not every piece. I do not handle the piece that is sent to you, and I would rather write that down than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier does not know it, and the scales do not tell me: they identify the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I do not have that done. So you will never read “Grade A jadeite”, “Type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
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 7 October 2016. What applies today dates from 8 April 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but a US person is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. A single supply chain serves ten markets, so it has to hold up in the most demanding of them. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin charter.
