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 catalog, 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 color 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 colored 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 catalog.
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 colored 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
Color
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 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.
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 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 color. 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.
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.
