About COLOR of JADEITE JADE
Color is the most important for determining the value of Jade.
The following are the characteristics of COLORS of JADEITE JADE:
(Pleased be noted that this is just the most basic to value a Jade)
GREEN JADEITE JADE
Green jadeite jade shows the greatest color variety in terms of tone, brightness, and depth of color, and this seems to be the principle reason for the stone’s popularity, at least in China and around Asia.
Green Color Jadeite Jade, due to its popularity and value, is so complicated to explain here by few words but is worth to study. Please read more on About VARIETY of JADEITE JADE.
WHITE COLOR JADEITE JADE
White color is one of the primary color of Natural Jade and is the original color of the pure jade in gemological terms.
Jadeite with White in color is of normal quality unless it comes with high degree of translucent and luster and become colorless. A piece of Colorless Jade (ICY VARIETY) is highly valued. However, most of the jade, normal white appears to be the most usual color.
YELLOW / ORANGE / RED COLOR JADEITE JADE
Red Color Jadeite Jade is very rare in carved jade or jade jewellery.
Red jadeite jade can appear in Bloody Red, Red, Orange Red, Pink color. This color is said to be the opposite of the Green color.
In the name Fei Cui (翡翠 Chinese name of jadeite), Fei (翡) is referring to the Red (or Yellow) Color Jadeite and Cui (翠) is referring to the Green Color Jadeite. Red Color Jade usually has a touch of Yellow and therefore we will sometimes categorized Red and Yellow Jade as Yellow Fei (黃翡).
Among the three color (Red, Orange, Yellow), Red is the most rare color and Yellow is the least.
BLUE COLOR JADEITE JADE
Blue color jade is also very rare and is said to be a weird color of jadeite.
Blue color jade will not appear in pure blue and usually appear with other color like green or purple. The usual occurring blue jade shows a bit dull, less translucent and has a touch of grey.
The Value of Blue jade is not that good even it’s rare. But sometimes is very hot and popular due to its weird.
LAVENDER JADEITE JADE
Purple color is also one of the primary color of Natural Jade. In ancient China, purple color is said the Color of Emperor. A real fine piece of Lavender Jade may have an even higher price than fine piece of Green one.
Purple jadeite jade comes in several tones, including: pinkish purple, bluish purple and reddish purple. It is usually rather pale forming more of an undertone than a strong color.
BLACK JADEITE JADE
Before Black jadeite is highly recognized, some doubted that Black jade is not Jadeite and would consider it as Nephrite because they used to believe Jadeite cannot be appeared to be “black” in color. But after some professional and detailed investigation on some pieces of existing black jade, people found some is Jadeite and some is Nephrite. Black jadeite is also found in Burma mine and so it is correct to tell black jade is a Burma jade.
Jadeite found to be in Black is in fact not a real Black. They are just too dark in green color and composed of jadeite in the form of short prismatic grains. They appear black in reflected light but deep green in transmitted light.
MULTI-COLOR JADEITE JADE
When we are talking about the color of jade, not only the saturation or the color tone matter the value of jade, the uniqueness also counts.
As a natural occurring stone, Jadeite is usually in a mixture of color tone or color intensity. In making the fine jadeite stone, people used to take the evenly distributed part to be the gemstone.
However, mixed color is also highly appreciated due to its color and rich contents like a beautiful picture.
Below is some reference on the value of various type of mixed color
- Lavender + Green (name as 春帶彩 in Chinese)
- Red + Green + Purple (name as 福祿壽 (Fuk-Luk-Sau) in Chinese)
- Red + Green + Purple + White (or Yellow) (name as 福祿壽嘉 in Chinese)
- Red + Green + Purple + Yellow + White (name as 五福臨門 in Chinese)
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