S925 Silver Jadeite Gourd Pendant

Jadeite is cool when you first pick it up, and against skin it takes a while to come level with your body temperature. That coolness isn't the dead cold of ordinary stone; there is a hint of water in it, and on a polished curved face a fingertip will slide. When choosing a jadeite pendant, first see whether light can get inside. If it can, the colour lives. If there is only a shine on the surface, that is the polisher's skill and not the character of the stone. The bulging shape of a gourd hides a great deal: raise the curve and cotton and cracks are pressed inwards, so the piece looks clean until you tilt it to the light and they reappear.

The gourd has hung in Han Chinese life for two thousand years. Medicine was kept in one, wine was kept in one, and the immortals in Daoist painting wore one at the waist. Folk usage takes the homophone fulu, blessing and salary together, and reads the long vine with many fruits as a sign of a family line continuing; old dowry chests and window paper-cuts carry gourds for exactly that reason. Its shape, round at both ends and pinched at the middle, gave rise to another reading as well: a small mouth and a wide belly, able to hold what is put inside.

The setting here works by subtraction. A plain silver collar grips the waist of the gourd, with no scrolling vines, no cloud heads, no dangling drops. Silver's cool white against the green of jadeite is two cool tones together, and it reads cleaner than a mix of gold and silver. The inside of the collar has to be lined so that it sits snugly; forced on, it will bruise the edge of the stone, and in time a crack opens from somewhere you can't see. Bare silver doesn't compete for colour — green stays green, white stays white, and the quality of the material is legible at a glance, which is what anyone buying jade wants.

The waist is the thinnest part of a gourd and the part most likely to break. Don't let it face outward against the edge of a desk; standing up or bending over is when it happens. Jadeite dislikes falls and dislikes heat, so take it off before a bath or a sauna and don't leave it on a radiator. The cord should pass through the moving ring on the silver collar rather than wrapping directly around the waist. Wrapped, it will wear a white line into the stone over the years, and that line will not polish out.

Silver collars loosen with wear. Every so often, pinch one between your fingertips; if it turns, tighten it a little. Jadeite needs no oil and no soaking — a dry cloth and a soft bag are enough. Some people like to wear a pendant against the skin and say it grows glossier; mostly that is skin oil laying a film on the surface, brighter to look at and unchanged underneath. If you want to feed it, wearing beats wiping. The slight oil of a person is steadier than any care oil sold for the purpose.