Why is jade so expensive? (And why some is suspiciously cheap)

In 2014, a jadeite bead necklace that once belonged to the heiress Barbara Hutton sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for more than US$27 million. Meanwhile you can find a "jade" bracelet online for less than the price of a coffee. Both get called jade. So what's going on?

What sets the price of jade

Which jade it is

Top-quality jadeite is the most valuable jade by a long way. Nephrite is usually more affordable, although fine nephrite, especially pure white, is highly prized in China. Where the stone comes from matters too: Guatemalan jadeite generally sells well below comparable Burmese jadeite.

Colour

The most valuable colour is an intense, even green known as imperial green. Lavender, strong blue-greens and pure black also have their followings. Colour that is strong and spread evenly through the stone costs more than pale or patchy colour.

Translucency and texture

Traders talk about how much "water" a stone has, meaning how much light passes into it. Fine-grained, glassy jade that glows when light hits it is worth far more than coarse, opaque material of the same colour.

Treatment

Untreated jade costs much more than jade that has been bleached, filled with resin or dyed. That's exactly why treated jade exists, and why sellers sometimes stay quiet about it. We explain the letters in Type A, B and C jade.

Size and carving

Big, clean pieces of rough are rare. And a chain is hungry for stone. To cut a set of interlocking links, a carver starts with a solid block and grinds most of it away. On a single-piece carving, where the links are cut from one block and never joined, one slip ruins the whole chain. The labour is slow and the waste is high.

So why is some jade so cheap?

Usually because it isn't jade, or it's jade that has been treated to look better than it is. Dyed quartz, glass and serpentine are all sold as jade at the bottom of the market. Mass-made bead strings often use low-grade or dyed material. If a price looks impossible for real stone, it usually is.

Is jade worth buying?

It depends what you want it to do. Fashion jade is not an investment, and we'd be wary of anyone who sells it as one. What a natural jade piece does give you is a material that can't wear off. A plated chain is a thin coat of colour over cheaper metal, and once that coat goes, you're buying the same chain again. The colour in jade runs all the way through the stone.

Where our prices sit

We don't sell imperial jadeite. Our pieces are natural jade, never dyed, bleached or polymer-filled, chosen for colour and toughness and carved into Cuban links and cable chains with stainless steel clasps. That puts them between a plated chain and fine jewellery, which is where we think a stone chain you wear every day belongs.

If you're buying two pieces, say a necklace and a bracelet or one for you and one as a gift, the second piece is 50% off. You can see everything in the jade collection, and you have 90 days from delivery to have it checked by a jeweller under our returns policy.