Jade deposits have been found in New Zealand, China, Guatemala, Russia, the Swiss Alps, and Western Canada.
The color of Jade usually ranges from an exotic array of intense, imperial greens to delicate violets and deep lusty blacks. Jades commonly exert a classical oiled-like shine, and exuberate a memorizing deep green glow.
Jade is a generic term for two different types of minerals, nephrite and jadeite. These minerals are tough and hard, since they consist of densely packed grains of matted-aggregates. Jade stones often show decorative patterns of streaks and veins, though the most valued Jades exhibit evenly distributed color.
Jade is symbolic of beauty, energy, and harmony, and was considered by the ancient Chinese to be a “royal gem.” Stones of Jade have had such significance in Eastern Asian, Incan, and Maori cultures that it was comparable in price and reverence to gold and diamonds in the Western world. Jade was used for weapons and tools in prehistoric times, and have decorated the collarbones of ancient tribal men and women for some 7,000 years. Jade embodies the Confucian virtues of wisdom and courage, as well as compassion, modesty, and the female-erotic. The ancient Egyptians believed that Jade jewelry was the ultimate talisman for luck.
