A jade turtle pendant carved in the round from a single piece of nephrite: a dragon turtle, with a dragon’s head, round eyes and a mane swept back over the shell, a domed carapace with engraved scales. The grey green of the stone warms into a honey yellow patch towards the base.
In four lines
A dragon turtle carved in the round, from a single piece of nephrite.
Dragon’s head, mane, engraved scales on the carapace.
A deep grey green, warmed by a honey yellow patch.
No metal: it is worn on a cord or a chain.
A turtle with a dragon’s head
This jade turtle pendant is not an ordinary turtle. Its head is that of a dragon: a broad muzzle, two round protruding eyes, and a long mane that sweeps back in an arc towards the shell. The body, on the other hand, is truly a turtle’s, legs folded under a domed carapace whose every scale is engraved with a clean line.
The dragon turtle is a very old figure of Chinese art, bringing together the two animals most loaded with meaning in that tradition. It is found in stone at the foot of steles, in bronze in temples, and in jade in the hand.
The carving, from every angle
It is carved in the round, that is to say in three dimensions, to be looked at from every side, and not in simple relief on a plaque. The carver worked the hollows as much as the bumps: the bright polish catches the light on the dome of the shell and on the brow, while the engravings stay in shadow and draw the piece.
Under the thumb, the shell is smooth and domed; you quickly pick up the habit of turning it between your fingers.
A grey green that warms up
Nephrite is here a deep grey green, translucent on the finest reliefs, with faint lighter veils. Towards the base, the stone turns to a warm honey yellow patch. That change of tone gives the carving a depth a uniform colour would not have: no piece will have exactly the same.
No metal touches the stone: it is worn on a silk or cotton cord for a simple spirit, or on a chain for a dressier look. It is a pendant with presence, to be worn alone, over an open collar or a plain jumper.
A carving has hollows, and it is they that hold dust and creams. A soft toothbrush, warm soapy water, a rinse and a thorough drying are enough to keep it clean. Store it in its pouch, apart: other jewellery scratches a polish. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Spinach green
Stone shape
Carving in the round
Motif
Turtle
Mounting
None
Metal
None
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
None, jade only
Mineral family
Calcic amphibole
Hardness (Mohs)
6 to 6.5
Reference density
2.90 to 3.03 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the jade turtle
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 turtle that carries stelesChinese legend makes the Bixi, a turtle with a dragon's head, one of the nine sons of the dragon. It is he who is carved at the foot of the great stone steles, which he has carried on his back for centuries.
The Black Turtle of the NorthAmong the four animals that guard the cardinal points in Chinese cosmology, the North falls to the Black Turtle. There it is the figure of endurance and of what lasts.
Long lifeBecause it lives long and moves without hurrying, the turtle has been a symbol of long life in China since antiquity, and a frequent motif on gifts made to elders.
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.
