Which one would you choose between the “good quality” and “good color” jade?

When we appreciate jadeite, we often say that this piece is a "water-grade" piece and that piece is a "colored" piece. So which piece of jadeite is more valuable? Many jade lovers may have such doubts, Hai Xin will explain it to you in detail!

Parallel imports

The raw materials of jadeite can be divided into old mines and new mines. Generally speaking, the jadeite produced from old mines has a denser, finer, harder texture and more water. The old mine is rich in high-quality jadeite, which is old and fine in quality, and has a relatively high transparency, giving people a feeling of ice and jade purity.

"Water-rich goods" actually refers specifically to those jade materials that are old and have long water content. They are full of water, icy and translucent, giving people a sense of elegant and clear beauty. The more water content and the higher the transparency of jade, the higher its value. As the saying goes, "the more water, the more value increases by ten taels." This is the truth.

Color goods

The reason why jade appears in rich and diverse colors is because it contains coloring elements during its formation. For example, the green color of jade is caused by chromium. When the chromium content is too low, it appears light green. When the chromium content is too high, it appears dark green.

And in the actual formation, due to the complex growing environment, various kinds of green are born, such as imperial green, sun green, onion heart green, hibiscus green, spinach green, bean green and so on.

Yellow and red are usually caused by oxides (goethite and hematite) in the gaps between jade mineral particles, and these oxides are secondary minerals formed during jade's weathering process on the surface. Therefore, the yellow and red colors of jade are secondary colors.

The purple color of jade is generally caused by manganese and iron. The black color is caused by excess chromium and iron, and appears as a very deep green color. It is black when observed under natural light and green when observed through light.

The variegated colors of jadeite refer to the appearance of multiple colors on a piece of jadeite. For example, jadeite with both purple and green colors is called spring-color jadeite. If green, red and purple appear at the same time, it is called "Fu Lu Shou", representing the three joys of happiness, wealth and longevity, and symbolizing good luck and fortune. Of course, in reality, there are more than just these colors.

Jade has endless color forms, but when a piece of jade is full of color and evenly lustrous, its overall value will be improved. Likewise, the more colors there are, the higher the value.

But usually, jadeite with bright colors is mostly of average quality. Purple jadeite is a typical example. “Nine out of ten purple jadeites are wood” means that the texture of purple jadeite is generally coarser.

Another situation is jadeite with green. If there are green and white distributed on a piece of jadeite, but not much, you will find that the green part has more water than the white part. This is what “dragon has water everywhere” means. “Dragon” is a respectful name for “green”.

Both water and color

If a piece of jade has a fine and dense texture, is old and has long water content, and has a bright and attractive color, then it can be said that it has both good quality, water content and color, or that the quality, water content and color are both excellent. Such jade is precious and even hard to come by, and is generally very expensive. After seeing so many, I wonder if you like jadeite with water content, jadeite with color, or jadeite with both quality and color?