Featured knotted green stone bead necklace

everytime i find stones like this they turn out to be serpentine, so this is probably as well !!

was only a pound, so thought worth a gamble

not very old me thinks, but cold and hard

any thoughts appreciated

 

ID of Jade has me befuddled.
What makes a jade necklace or brooch worth pennies or hundreds?. What is really the difference between Jade and Jadeite or are they one and the same?.
Some ‘jade’ floods the market and is cheap as chips and other Jade has buyers bidding through the roof. How do you tell the difference ‘in the wild’ when treasure hunting? Quality of clasps helps but not always present.

 

There are 2 types of jade,see info in link.

https://www.ajsgem.com/articles/jade-jadeite-and-nephrite.html

 

Yeah I totally agree ksw, it's the one thing no matter how much I research I can never seem to be able to Identify definitely

I guess it's one one those where you need to handle alot of it

 

There are two main types of Jade, Jadeite and Nephrite. Jadeite is more sought after, lower grades of both look similar. High grade jadeite looks like a very rich green chrysoprase and can be very expensive.

As regarding prices online, there really isn't much reasoning to it like most things.

Edit to add, your beads do look like jade, can tell which species from a pic though.

 

The 2 types can be easily identified with a gem tester. Do you know anyone who has one and can test it for you?

 

Hi Marie, no unfortunately not. Good idea though, might look into buying one

 

Then maybe take it to a jeweler for help, but not a mall jewelry store.

 

Not by collectors of antique Chinese jades.
Nephrite is called 'the collector's jade' or the 'scholar's jade'.
Jadeite was imported into China from Burma for the affluent merchant class. Because of its bright colours it was considered gaudy by more scholarly Chinese.

The most sought after is mutton fat jade, which is nephrite. It has the nice velvety feel most nephrite has, matched with a soft whitish colour. Gentle on the eye and to the touch, like this figurine:


https://sandiegoestateservices.com/collecting-chinese-jade-san-diego/

 

Agree for carvings, but OP's piece is jewellery where everyone wants imperial jade.

 

I rest my (and Charlie’s) case M’lud.
Yours, befuddled.

 

Imperial jade is simply a colour, vivid green, and yes, people do like it. This is more a celadon jade, which many others prefer. I am in the celadon preference 'camp'.
But charlies necklace is not something for jade buyers/collectors. It is simply a pretty necklace that is popular at the moment. It has many siblings, but it is handmade.

Imperial jade:

 

Yes, it's because naming conventions developed before proper analysis was possible. They used to think nephrite and jadeite were the same, so they were called jade, and the various shades and forms given different names, ie imperial jade, which as AJ pointed out is an intense green translucent form of jadeite.

So all the names you see are just tags for different colours/impurities in either jadeite or nephrite. They can also be dyed different colours and come naturally in different colours.

I suspect the industry likes the confusion as it helps them market things and confuse customers with things that sound more exciting than they are.