A jade ring for women, a clear green oval cabochon held by four claws at the center of a halo of white stones. A fine sterling silver band, with shoulders pierced in scrollwork.
This mounting catches: the claws, the halo and the openwork take hold of woollen knits. That is not a defect, it is the price of the halo, which makes the stone look larger.
The white stones are named nowhere by my supplier, and I will not name them either. Set, therefore unweighable. Treatment status not determined.
A jade ring for women set with a clear green oval cabochon, held by four claws at the center of a halo of small white stones. The band is fine, in sterling silver, and its shoulders are pierced in scrollwork.
In four lines
An oval cabochon, four claws, within a halo of white stones.
A fine sterling silver band, shoulders pierced in scrollwork.
That openwork catches: this is not a ring to wear under a woollen sleeve.
Set, therefore unweighable: no figure will be published, and the page says so.
A halo, and what it does to the stone
The cabochon is ringed by a crown of small set white stones. It is a classic jewelry mounting, and it has a precise optical effect: it makes the central stone look larger, and it increases the contrast, therefore the apparent intensity of the green. The same cabochon set on its own would look smaller and duller.
What that costs: the whole assembly rises higher above the finger, and the claws as well as the crown catch on fabrics, on a woollen knit in particular. It is not a manufacturing defect, it is the price of this mounting, and it is better to know beforehand than after.
The scrollwork on the shoulders
The two shoulders of the band are cut with arabesques, an openwork filigree motif. Here too, that means less metal and more edges: the ring is lighter to the eye, and it catches more.
Openwork is also hard to clean: dust and soap lodge in it. A very soft brush, lukewarm water, careful rinsing, and thorough drying before putting it away, since a closed setting holds water under the stone. Care in detail.
How to take your size
The European size is the finger circumference in millimeters: a 54 measures 54 mm around the inside, nothing to convert. Measure with a tailor’s tape or a strip of paper, at the end of the day rather than on waking, since the finger is thinner in the morning.
On a band as fine as this one, take your exact size: unlike a wide ring, it does not grip more than it appears to. Silver can be resized by a jeweler, but the pierced shoulders lend themselves to it poorly, since the motif distorts when the diameter is changed. The size guide.
A clear green, and where it comes from
The green of jadeite comes from chromium, where nephrite’s comes from iron and pulls toward spinach. The two minerals are unrelated: jadeite is a pyroxene, nephrite an amphibole, and it was Alexis Damour who separated them in 1863. What tells them apart.
The cabochon is domed and polished solid, with no facets: the green reads as one block, denser around the rim where the thickness crossed is greatest. And what lets a stone this size hold on four fine claws is the toughness of jade, not its hardness, which stays ordinary. The difference between hardness and toughness.
Additional information
Stone
Jadéite
Color
Clear green
Stone shape
Cabochon
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Metal band
Metal
Sterling silver 925
Setting
Claw set
Worn by
Women
Paired stones
White stones, not identified
Mineral family
Sodium aluminum 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 jewelry in this shop is sold as a treatment, and I attribute no effect to this one.
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.
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 color of what grows and renews itself. The association is old and broad; it says nothing about the stone itself.
The receiving handAs with the bangle, several traditions distinguish the left hand from the right, one receiving and the other giving. The usage is widespread; it is known to have no basis other than custom.
Shipped within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from the day it ships. I keep no buffer stock, and I will not promise a date I cannot meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 no matter the destination, and free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The exact amount shows in your cart before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece leaves in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not about presentation: jade’s hardness is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust rates 7. Two pieces of jewelry that travel together arrive scratched.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No reason needed. One email opens a return, and there is no form to fill out. Return shipping is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Getting the size wrong is the leading cause of returns 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.
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 cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier cannot tell me, and the weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The treatment information page.
The Scratch, and Where It Comes From
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it possible to turn it into axes 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 rates 7, and that is what dulls a jade, not impacts. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and lotion, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening, and sports, where the hard knocks happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone does: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I am French, from Morbihan in Brittany, and I live in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I carve nothing, and I do not do the metalwork myself. What I bring is the sorting, and with this material the sorting decides everything.
I am not a gemologist, a lapidary, or a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not 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, and not every piece. I never handle the piece that ships to you, and I would rather say so plainly than let anyone believe otherwise. The method, with its three limitations.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier cannot tell me, and neither can the scale: it establishes the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only laboratory infrared spectroscopy would settle the question, and I do not have that testing done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information page.
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 October 7, 2016. What applies today dates from April 8, 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but an American is not allowed to do business with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. I run one supply chain for ten markets, and it has to stand up to the strictest one. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin policy.
