Colors of Jadeite Jade, Continued

The color range for nephrite is not nearly as broad as for jadeite and is usually characterized by a certain dullness of color and waxiness of texture. Old stones (from Turkestan) are sometimes creamy (mutton-fat) white while most modern nephrite ranges from gray-black to an olive green. There is a coal black nephrite, which takes a good polish, and is currently mined in Wyoming and Australia.

It is often asked if there is a blue jade or a pink jade. There is no known blue jadeite, although a deep blue nephrite is claimed. As to pink, most jade reported as pink is, in fact, not jade. Jade very often exhibits several colors within one piece. Although one pure uniform color is usually best, combinations such as green and lavender, red and green, or white with strong green are very desirable. The Chinese have an extensive list of phrases to identify these combinations and colors: moss-in-snow, chicken-blood, valley-leaf, old mine, spring grass and many others.What is the best color? Other considerations aside, the hierarchy of color value would be green, lavender, red, yellow, white and black. This is by no means an absolute scale; however, no one would argue with the first two.

The finest color of green jade would be close in color to a fine Colombian emerald, but of a darker hue. In fact, the coloring agent, chromium, is the same for jadeite and emerald. As the green becomes lighter or darker than this standard, the value becomes proportionately less. The same can be said of the other colors (even black). The ideal is a strong, vibrant color while successively darker or lighter shades are considered less desirable.

In all cases, except white jade, the degree of translucence enhances the value, while a lack of translucence diminishes the value. Translucence alone, in the absence of body color, is called “water” or “crystal” jade.

What causes these colors? In a nutshell, the color and translucence of jade are the result of the chemical impurities present in the rough and the rate at which the jade cooled eons ago during the formation process. For example, green is the result of chromic oxide impurities; lavender comes about from the presence of manganese; red jade occurs as the end product of oxidation from surrounding water or earth; black jade denotes high iron content; white jade is “pure” jade. Of course, jade contains many other impurities that modify and shade these colors (quartz, mica, serpentine, etc.).