1900s 20k gold earrings set with apple green jadeite jade in a drop style.

These type of jadeite is recognisably old jade, both in the carving style and the color of the jadeite. There is white braided within the green, and it is this opaque but bright apple green that we immediately know is old jade. This color and type of jadeite is perceived as the jade younger women wore once upon a time, we’re talking nearly 100 years ago.

Today when we see such quality in jade, we are less worried there is treatment, as this is not the type of jade that sees a lot of treatment, though this is certainly Type A jadeite.

But it is not just because it is natural that we love this kind of jade. We love it because seeing old kinds of jade reminds us jade is an evocative stone intertwined with each era, a sensitive adoration beyond the marketable stone/color it has become today.

Don’t miss the carvings within the whole carving; each side is actually one elongated melon with melons carved onto it. All 5cm of its length exude a dainty aura.

Like much of Straits Chinese early period jewellery, nothing was big and clumsy. In fact authentic turn of the (last) century period jewellery were consistently delicate in size and well proportioned; nothing was overly statured or excessive. Asian-influenced jewellery only became increasingly decorous during postwar eras.

These drop earrings fall into the broad category of being ‘French’, the better part of ‘Chinoiserie’ when Chinoiserie wasn’t even coined as a fashion style!