Jade Necklace with Rare Chatoyancy Certified Untreated

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Jade Necklace with Rare Chatoyancy Certified Untreated

About the Item

These jade beads are indescribably luminous. As a second-generation collector of jade, I have been around the stone my entire life and yet when I saw these beads I was in awe, for they possess a quality so rare it is almost never seen in jade: chatoyancy. You've seen chatoyancy in moonstone or chrysoberyl cat's eye: it's the optical effect of light sliding around just below the surface of the stone. Most people have never even seen jade that displays such an un-earthly glow. The necklace seems to be literally alive with light. "Jade" is one name for two stones: jadeite and nephrite. The finest jadeite comes from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and is the most valuable and prized variety of jade. The best nephrite? Well, that depends. For white nephrite: China; for black nephrite: Wyoming. But for green nephrite that rivals the color and quality of the best imperial jadeite from Myanmar, it is my opinion (shared by many other gemologists) that only jade from Russia—Siberian nephrite—can compete. Carl Fabergé regularly featured Siberian nephrite in his most magnificent creations. Some —but not all— very fine Siberian nephrite exhibits the phenomenon known as chatoyancy, or almost a cat's eye effect. A strand of such beads is a remarkably beautiful and remarkably rare thing, indeed. This 27" unisex necklace is created from eighty of the very finest gleaming Siberian-green nephrite beads. Each displays a glassy translucence, an even, rich saturation and a hue that rivals the finest jadeite. On page 91, plate #93 of the book, "Fabergé in the Royal Collection" by Caroline de Guitaut, you will see a pair of carved kingfishers from circa 1900. These beads are of that quality. Except they exhibit chatoyancy, making them simply astounding to behold. Each approximately 7.5 mm bead has been hand-carved and then painstakingly hand-polished to achieve a mirror-polish. The beads have been strung old-school style, as they were in China during (at least) the late 19th century until the mid 20th, with wire wrapped around (and around and around) the cord at the point where the cord is looped through the jump ring. The reason for the wire is to prevent the cord from fraying but I've always loved the way it looks because the human imperfection of the wire-wrapping really says "handmade." Because I employed traditional methods in the beading of this necklace, the wire will be stiff at first. That's perfectly normal. In time, it will "relax." The simple "hook and eye" style clasp was handmade in Portugal of 19k gold and is hallmarked. Jade has always been the embodiment of substance and success; of resilience and integrity. This necklace of extraordinary beads exemplifies those qualities.

Creator:
Augusten Burroughs
Metal:
18k Gold
Stone:
Jade
Weight:
48.99 g
Dimensions:
Width: 0.3 in (7.5 mm)Length: 27 in (685.8 mm)
Style:
Contemporary
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
2010-
Date of Manufacture:
2019
Condition:
Seller Location:
Southbury, CT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU158917030952