Imitated, but never equaled! Jade remains an extremely sought after gem especially in Asia where its value can reach peaks. How to distinguish a real jade from a fake one? Here are some tricks found specifically on «Chinese objects» sales sites.
Note first of all that to know if the jade is authentic, you can find out about its origin. Jadeite jade is found in Guatemala, in Myanmar (former Burma) and there are some small deposits in Russia. As for nephrite, deposits are found in China, Russia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Certain stones resemble jade, for example jadeite (not to be confused with jadeite jade). Its grain is less tight and fine, it is dark green, its density is less high than true jade and it can be scratched with quartz, it heats up quickly. Another mineral used is jasper. It is a quartz that when chemically dyed, resembles jade.
The way to tell it apart is to do a hardness test: quartz scratches green but cannot scratch quartz, unlike jade. Agate and sardonyx can also be dyed to look like jade, but they do not have the same depth and brilliance as jade. Finally, a fairly simple imitation to repair, remains in the saponite, the soapstone that can be scratched with a simple piece, and that is not absolutely translucent.. Likewise, plastic can be used, but to detect it, it is enough to touch it to realize that the texture does not resemble it.
HOW TO MAKE TESTS IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GEMOLOGIST’S LOUPE?
Here are 4 very simple means:
- You can throw the stone. If throwing it and catching it in your palm, it seems heavier, it may be a jade, because jade has a strong density.
- You can hit two stones together because cWhen two jades are struck together, the tinkling has a crystal clear sound..
- You can squeeze and heat the stone in your hand for one minute, then hold it for thirty seconds and touch it with a piece of your tongue. If the stone is cold, this is a good indication that it is true jade.
- You can perform a scratch test: jade scratches metal and glass.
Jade is divided into categories according to its quality:
- Type A Jade: it is natural jade, not treated. It has its natural color and has not suffered from artificial treatment.
- type b jade: It has been chemically lightened and its translucency has been improved thanks to the injection of polymers. It may discolor over time, but it remains a natural and authentic jade.
- type c jade: Its color has been chemically dyed and lightened. It degrades with heat, strong light or contact with household detergents.
Source: china-information.com:
«We can estimate gold, but jade is priceless»
Chinese proverb
Jade prices vary according to quality, a beautiful category A green jadeite jade can easily be sold for more than 250 dollars per carat, that is, 20 grams (since 1 carat = 20g). And a category B green jadeite jade, around $150 a carat.
Record 12.23 million dollars, is the price at which a white jade seal that belonged to the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century has been awardedat the time of an auction organized by Sotheby’s in 2010.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JADEITE JADE AND NEPHRITE JADE
Jade is a family of minerals arranged in two different branches and with different properties but sometimes similar in appearance, jadeite and nephrite. It was the French mineralogist Alexis Damour who identified both types of jade in the 19th century: the nephrite that belongs to the amphibole group and the jadeite jade that is a sodium-aluminum silicate that belongs to the pyroxene group. These two minerals are aggregates (polycrystalline and cryptocrystalline).
Their physical properties are very different:
- Nephrite has a hardness of 6 – 6.5 on the Mohs scale, while jadeite scores 6.5 – 7.
- Its density is different: it is 2.9 – 3.03 for nephrite and 3.3 – 3.38 for jadeite.
- Jadeite is harder and heavier than nephrite.
- These two minerals are very solid and break with difficulty, but it is also what allows them to be sculpted very finely.
- Jadeite jade exists in all colors without exception, while nephrite is coated with a limited number of dyes.
Source: Stephen Rosenberg, director of Stephen Rosenberg Gemmology (SRG) based in Zürich.