White jade ruyi necklace: the stone cut as a ruyi head, that coiled scroll seen at the end of Chinese sceptres, capped with an engraved gilt plate that serves as the bail. Fine chain.
The word ruyi translates as as you wish. The object serves no purpose and commands nothing: it formulates a wish, and that is its whole definition.
On a white the weighing separates less clearly: dolomitic marble reaches 2.85, nephrite starts at 2.90. The page explains how I mean to settle it. Why I write it down.
A white jade ruyi necklace: the stone is cut as a ruyi head, that scroll coiled on itself seen at the end of Chinese sceptres, and capped with an engraved gilt plate that serves as the bail. The chain is fine, and the piece is worn high on the neck.
In four lines
The stone is cut as a ruyi head, the scroll of the sceptres.
An engraved gilt cap, which serves as the bail.
Translucent white, fine chain: it is worn high on the neck.
The record will depend on the cap: it must come off without forcing.
The ruyi, an object before it was a motif
This scroll is not an abstract ornament. It is the head of a ruyi, a Chinese court sceptre some thirty centimetres long, examples of which in jade, wood or ivory were given at imperial birthdays and weddings.
The name translates as as you wish, and that is the whole sense of the object: it serves no purpose, it commands nothing, it formulates a wish. Its origin is more prosaic, since it is often seen as the descendant of a back scratcher with a curved handle.
The shape of the head comes from the lingzhi, the mushroom of immortality of the Taoist pharmacopoeia, whose cap coils in exactly that way. That is why it is found everywhere in Chinese ornament, at the end of a cloud as at the top of a lock plate.
A white, and why the weighing is more delicate here
On a deep green, density separates cleanly: serpentine around 2.6, quartzite around 2.65, nephrite from 2.90. The gap is frank. On a white a fourth candidate invites itself in: dolomitic marble, sold under the name of white jade, which reaches 2.85.
2.85 against 2.90, the margin is too thin to conclude on the figure alone. What you look at then is the grain in grazing light: a marble shows crystalline patches that sparkle in facets, a nephrite shows an even fibrous felting.
Both observations will be published together in the record, with their date. The gilt cap must still come off without forcing, and that is the first thing I will check. The method, with its three limits.
A fitted cap, and what it implies
The gilt plate is not set around the stone: it caps it from above and continues into the bail. It is a light mounting, which leaves the scroll entirely visible and adds almost no weight to the piece.
The metal is gold tone, not hallmarked by my supplier. So I write it as gold tone, and not gold plated: a plating is a thickness, so a figure, and I do not invent it. Gilding on an engraved piece wears first at the top of the reliefs.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the ruyi and to jade
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. Nothing here is demonstrated. These are customs and beliefs, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece in this shop is sold as a remedy, and I claim no effect for this one.
As you wishThat is the literal translation of ruyi, and it is all the object means. They were given at imperial birthdays, at weddings and at appointments to office, in pairs or in sets of nine, and their value lay in the material as much as in the gesture.
A mushroom behind the scrollThe coiled head takes up the cap of the lingzhi, the mushroom the Taoist pharmacopoeia associates with long life. That is why the motif is found on lock plates, clouds and borders throughout Chinese ornament.
A sceptre that commands nothingUnlike the Western sceptre, the ruyi is the insignia of no power. It is an object for the hand, held while speaking and laid on a table. Its uselessness is part of its definition.
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.
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.
