From time immemorial, jade has been closely associated with the Chinese culture. To the Chinese people, it has the power to protect body and spirit for both the living and the deceased; they also treat it as talisman. In the West, jade is sought after for its elegance, mystique and romance.

Jade can be classified into two different types, nephrite and jadeite. They are two totally different minerals. Colours of nephrite include translucent white, yellow, green, black and the colour is always evenly distributed. Colours of jadeite include white, purple, yellow, green and others; evenness of colours varies with different textures.

Most of the jades yielded in China are nephrite. Among highly treasured pieces of nephrite are some described as "mutton fat". As the description implies, these are pieces creamy white in colour and uniformly translucent. The majority of fine-carved jade artifacts are made of nephrite.

Jadeite is mainly produced in Burma.Since it is more prominent than nephrite in different aspects, such as texture, colour and price, it is used almost exclusively in jewellery setting, which also lead to a large demand in the market, so we will confine our discussion to jadeite.

Jadeite is also known as fei tsui. The criteria we employ for its appreciation are : colour, transparency, clarity, cutting and flaws.

COLOUR

Colour is of paramount importance. We examine the colour of fei tsui according to the following criteria:

Purity Purity refers to the proportion of the prime and the secondary colours. Let's take green fei tsui as example, the most desirable is pure green; in descending order of desirability are green tinted with yellow, blue and grey.

Intensity The more saturated the green the better the jade. However, an overdone intensity is of only middling quality.

Vividness The colour should be vibrant and lively. The presence of grey and black makes the green dull without altering its tint.

Evenness The more even the colour, the more desirable the jade and the higher the value.