Modern Chinese people love jade. They buy bracelets to give to newborn babies, trinkets to dangle from their mobile phones, rings, necklaces and earrings and other forms of jewelery just for the love of these translucent, sensuous stones. Hong Kong, the mainland, Singapore, Taiwan and many other markets in Asia with ethnic Chinese populations have shops that sell or specialize in jade jewelery and other pieces, a testimony to its enduring popularity.
Jade jewelery is being offered by the major auction houses with increasing regularity, fetching higher and higher prices. Jade beads strung with other precious and semi-precious stones, including diamonds, are frequently seen in the finer jewelery stores around Asia. Some jade fans prefer the spinach greens, while others are fascinated with the white and other colored jades and build entire collections of one hue, mostly white.
How should one know what to buy? The neophyte collector needs first to know the difference between nephrite and jadite. Jadeite is the rarer of the two jade variations, and the most expensive. Most of the world's supply of fine jadeite comes from Myanmar, but deposits are found in Guatemala and a few other areas around the world. Jadeite did not reach China from Myanmar until the final third of the Emperor Qianlong's reign (1735-96), so jadeite is relatively new to Chinese artisans. Most, if not all, the jade pieces and jewelery sold in Hong Kong today is jadeite.
Jadeite has a different structure than nephrite and has a glass-like translucency that was soon translated into jewelery and other pieces of personal adornment. Because so much jadeite is green, it is forgotten that jadeite occurs in many colors, including many variation of greens, plus white, lavender, pink, blue, grey, yellow, orange, black and shades of red, so color is not the only indicator of quality. Evenly colored, translucent emerald green jadeite is called Imperial Jade.
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