 | A huge piece of kahurangi nephrite on a sterling mount by Alfred Moreton, Hokitika. |
Having bought this beautiful jade online yesterday under extremely serendipitous conditions, I was equally astonished when it turned up this morning, and overjoyed to say the least. Greenstone (the typically reticent NZ epithet for this mineral) should always come to you, it's said, and I feel this was the case in this instance. It's an estate piece from the carver's family and is apparently from an historic stone discovered by the late Jean Derry, one of New Zealand's foremost jade prospectors back in the day. I believe it; it is manifestly a taonga (treasure), strongly coloured and fine-grained and possessed of that soft, sensuous lustre that so invites the hand.
 | Strictly speaking, there is no jade to be found in New Zealand; it's virtually all nephrite, which is a blend of actinolite and tremolite or Ca2(Mg, Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2 (my face is as blank as yours right now). To cut a very long geological story short, nephrite starts life as something igneous or metamorphic, often at altitude, and ends up as a gnarly and almost completely anonymous boulder in the middle of a river on the West Coast of the South Island, the latter designated Te Wai Pounamu by Maori as an acknowledgement. The boulders are both prospected by local tribes and poached by irresponsible douchebags, typically with heavy machinery, though some blocks are sectioned with diamond saws in situ due to their great weight. The 'greenstone' sold to unsuspecting tourists at the many tacky outlets infesting this fair land is often Chinese rubbish and I would encourage you not to buy it. If you're looking for a souvenir, think about patronizing one of the many local carvers using NZ nephrite. Just ask around. |
What makes a good piece of nephrite jewellery? Taste is a many-splendoured thing, so we apply the criteria we'd use to assess any artisanal object- is it pleasing, and is it well executed? Price is generally some indication though we've seen some god-awful rubbish wearing a four-figure tag. Poorly-worked stone requires a thick coat of wax to create lustre and running your fingernail over the surface will reveal how heavily this has been applied. Too much wax = not enough elbow grease. Is it waxy, wonky, dull, crudely-figured? Avoid. In a simple form like the one pictured, you should expect symmetry, a nice even taper and skillful attention to detail; laboriously polished and slightly convex on one side, this stone is perfectly flat on the reverse so that it sits flush with the skin and is almost invisibly riveted into a silver mount so tightly-fitted that I can scarcely imagine how it was achieved. Clouding and inclusions are not an indication of inferiority but more a central characteristic of the material; those seen here are present in the thick rind of the parental chunk, so this is a partial cross-section. Kahurangi means treasured, prized, heavenly or distinguished and usually describes this sort of medium to pale green translucent nephrite which is also known as 'flower jade' (confusingly) because of its blossom-like figuring. I also enjoy inanga, and kokopu, or trout stone, named after our native Galaxiid fish, which is an opaque variety with a lot more of the speckles to be seen in the top third of this piece. 'Good' colour is a matter of contrast, saturation and personal preference, as it is with any other gemstone.
Though I've always loved greenstone it can be a difficult wear, sharing an intimate, almost tender affinity with the right person but visibly militating against a less sympathetic companion. Time will tell if this pendant decides I'm cut from the right cloth. I certainly hope so.
Though I've always loved greenstone it can be a difficult wear, sharing an intimate, almost tender affinity with the right person but visibly militating against a less sympathetic companion. Time will tell if this pendant decides I'm cut from the right cloth. I certainly hope so.
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