Text By Gennady Oreshkin
Known as the Stone of Heaven and an enduring symbol of prosperity, health and power, jade has been a staple in Chinese decorative art for millennia. In jewellery, it’s proven to be a medium as versatile as gold.
Jade is an umbrella term for two distinct minerals: nephrite and jadeite. The former typically comes in milky –white –to –pale yellow varieties (also known as “mutton fat”) and light green hues; the colour largely depends on the varying levels of iron within its mineral composition. Jadeite, on the other hand, comes either in green (thanks to traces of chromium), lavender (manganese) and yellow-to-red-to-black hues (iron).
Nephrite is typically used for sculptural objects and ornaments and has been known to the craftspeople in modern-day China since time immemorial. Jadeite, a more popular choice among jewellers, arrived in Imperial China from Burma in 1784. It became especially sought after in the 19th century due to Empress Dowager Cixi’s love for the stone. One of the main reasons why jade is prized in jewellery is due to what’s colloquially known as its “water content”. Its crystalline structure allows light to pass through the stone easily, reflecting and refracting it, creating the illusion that the stone is filled with liquid.
Jade experienced a renaissance during the Art Deco era. Jewellers like Cartier used the stone liberally in their chinoiserie-inspired collections, from bracelets and earrings to the famous necklace with a clasp of calibre-cut rubies and baguette diamonds made for Barbara Hutton-Mdivani. Around the same time, Lacloche Freres began creating decorative boxes inlaid with entire landscapes carved out of green jade.
In the 21st century, jadeite remains exceptionally popular among collectors. In 2023, Christie’s sold an exceptional Bulgari jadeite and diamond necklace for CHF 2,885,000 in Geneva. Nine years earlier, it auctioned a pair of jadeite cabochon studs for more than HK$ 51 million.
Jeweller Samuel Kung remains, perhaps, the most renowned contemporary jade expert. The breadth of his aesthetic is astonishing. Working with jadeite of all colours, he creates exceptional necklaces with imperial green jadeite beads so uniform in colour and size that they appear almost cloned. Kung is also a master carver – his more audacious creations include goldfish- shell- and dragonfly-shaped brooches.
The vision of jade, both unreal and surreal, is most vividly explored by Hong Kong jewellery designer Austy Lee. His style, which could be described as hysterical aestheticism, is characterised by vast collections rooted in Chinese mythology and brought to life through unexpected combinations of materials and colours. Stones are often carved or composed into exceedingly ornate shapes.
The Gewürztraminers’ Spring Necklace, for example, features cabochons of intense, almost fluorescent purple Burmese jade with a rose gold vine slithering around them, while his White Lotus Frame Brooch is composed of gossamer-thin, intricately carved clouds of icy white jade (also from Burma). Remarkable from both technical and gemmological standpoints is Lee’s Red Water Lily Bangle, which is carved out of an uber-rare bicolour jade, which shifts from lavender to soft teal.
Another local jewellery brand that adores jade is K.S. Sze & Sons. Its oeuvre includes classic double- and single-thread bead necklaces. At the same time, the brand is unafraid to experiment. Case in point: a bracelet composed of chaotically arranged shards of cloudy green jade in 18k black gold “cages”, punctuated with brown diamonds.
Across the Pacific Ocean, in New York, David Webb has been adorning starlets with jade masterpieces since 1948. To this day, the jeweller’s aesthetic is rooted in post-war design tradition – imposing stones, bold chains, and audacious colour combinations. The Double Dragon Necklace he designed for American dancer Martha Graham in 1972, for example, consists of two large dragon-shaped jade plaques that originated from the Warring States Period (475 – 221 BCE). The house’s more contemporary pieces include the Dreamer Necklace featuring a large gold pendant with a female face cast into it and surrounded by a green jade cloud.
Hangzhou-based high-jewellery brand Hehe weaves jade into the naturalistic styles that have been popular among designers in the past two decades. Its West Lake collection sees imperial green jade inlay in the body and wings of a butterfly. Meanwhile, the Nature’s Poetry line features the stone carved into an elegant leaf, its veins clearly visible, with a beetle etched into its surface.
Jade has traversed millennia, from the hands of ancient Chinese craftsmen to today’s Bond Street vitrines, its mystique undiminished. The stone’s split personality – the creamy nephrite versus the vivid jadeite – has proven irresistibly versatile for jewellers, deployed everywhere from Cartier’s razor-sharp Art Deco geometries to the fantastical, mythology-laden creations emerging from Hong Kong’s most daring workshops.