Description

Throughout history, Jade has been prized as a stone of mystical power. “Yu” the Chinese word for Jade, meant “a precious stone of great beauty”. Ancient civilizations valued Jade as the most precious of all gemstones. Fine, very tough needle-fine crystals make Nephrite Jade, one of two mineral species known as Jade. (The other? Jadeite.) Nephrite Jade often has a waxy luster and in translucent samples, a fibrous appearance. Nephrite is formed through the metamorphosis of impure limestone and serpentine under high pressures and in the presence of water. Nephrite Jade varies in color from white to yellow, to pale and dark green and sometimes almost to black. The word Nephrite is derived from “lapis nephriticus”, a Latin translation of the Spanish “piedra de ijada”.

Polar jade earrings measure 2″ in length.