A jade and sterling silver ring, a large bright green oval cabochon, bezel set. Blue enamel scrollwork on the shoulders, a row of small faceted blue stones.
An open band, so no size to choose: it adjusts to the finger. On a head this high, close it one notch tighter than what feels comfortable on the first try.
A very even green, whose regularity this page discusses rather than boasts about. Blue stones not identified. Set, therefore unweighable. Treatment status not determined.
A jade and sterling silver ring set with a large bright green oval cabochon, bezel set. The mounting carries blue enamel scrollwork on the shoulders and a row of small faceted blue stones on either side. The band is open at the back and adjusts to the finger.
In four lines
A large bright green oval cabochon, bezel set on sterling silver.
Blue enamel on the shoulders and a row of blue stones, not identified.
An open band: no size to choose, it adjusts to the finger.
A very even green: this page discusses it below, it does not boast about it.
This green is the most even in the catalogue, and I am going to say so
The cabochon is a bright, clear, translucent green, of a regularity that shows neither patch nor vein. That is what makes it spectacular, and it is also what this site teaches you to look at closely on all its other pages.
A perfectly homogeneous colour on a natural stone is rare, because chromium did not settle to order. It can come from severe sorting through a large lot, or from a coloured impregnation. I have neither weighed it nor had it analyzed, and the treatment status of this piece is not determined, like that of this whole catalogue.
What I refuse to write is the opposite: not “untreated”, not “natural”, not “A jadeite”, not “type A”. Those four words are exactly the ones the market uses when it does not know, and French decree no. 2002-65 makes silence about a treatment an offense, not a discretion. What the letters A, B and C cover.
The blue enamel, and the blue stones
The shoulders carry blue enamel scrollwork, laid within metal cloisons. It is colorwork, not stonework: an enamel is a coloured glass fired onto the metal. It fears thermal shock and chemicals far more than the jade itself does, and it chips if you knock it.
The small faceted blue stones are not named by my supplier. At that size, a synthetic spinel, a blue cubic zirconia and a glass look alike. I will call them neither sapphire nor topaz. Naming a stone wrongly is precisely what the decree on trade descriptions penalizes.
An open band, and why there is no size to choose
The two ends of the band do not meet at the back. You slide it on from the side of the finger, then close it with light pressure. So you will see no size dropdown above the buy button.
On a ring with a head this high, a setting that is too loose lets the stone tip onto the side of the finger: close it one notch tighter than what feels comfortable on the first try. And do not open it every day, the metal tires.
Sterling silver, and what it actually does
Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5 percent silver, the rest being mostly copper. It tarnishes in air, which is normal and cleans off with a silver cloth, carefully avoiding the stone and the enamel. On acidic skin it can also mark, because of the copper: that is rare, it is not a manufacturing defect, and regular rinsing is usually enough.
Jade is tough, but its hardness stays ordinary, 6.5 to 7 for jadeite: the quartz in dust, which rates 7, dulls a dome far more surely than a knock. A bezel setting holds water under the stone: dry it completely. Never ultrasonics, never steam, never solvent, neither for the jade nor for the enamel. Hardness and toughness, and care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Jadéite
Colour
Clear green
Stone shape
Cabochon
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Metal band
Metal
Sterling silver 925
Setting
Bezel set
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
Blue stones, not identified
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 a jade ring
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. Nothing here is demonstrated. These are usages and beliefs, old and documented, that 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 attribute no effect to this one.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade is associated with qualities of character rather than with effects on the body: uprightness, constancy, restraint. It is the best documented meaning of all.
Green and growthClear green is, in several Asian traditions, the colour of what grows and renews itself. The association is old and broad; it says nothing about the stone itself.
The blue of the enamel, and what it is notChinese cloisonné enamels are known above all for their blue, so much so that the name given to them under the Ming refers to that colour. It is an art of metal and glass, and it borrows nothing from the symbolism of jade: I say so rather than let you believe otherwise.
The scholar's ringIn imperial China, the jade ring was also worn as a mark of rank and of study, not only as an ornament. It is the usage best attested by surviving objects.
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.
Getting the size wrong is the most common reason for a return in this category, and jade cannot be resized the way a solid metal band can. Two minutes spent measuring almost always avoids it. The size guide.
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.
