The earliest Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty, the Shuowen Jiezi, describes it: "Fei, Akabane Finch; Cui, Qingyu Finch Also".
In ancient China, the original "jadeite" refers to a bird with beautiful emerald color and red feathers.
Graph source network
After the Qianlong Dynasty, the term "jadeite" began to be widely used to describe and refer to the colorful jade from Myanmar, which is what we call jadeite in our jewelry jade today.
People think that jadeite should be green, but in fact, from the perspective of the name alone, "jade" and "jade" refer to different colors: green is called "jade", and people with red and yellow call it "jade".
Meganese designs Myanmar natural red emerald with diamond pendant and earring set | Lots at Poly Hong Kong Spring 2018 Auction
First, the colorful jadeite
In fact, jadeite colors are very rich.
Not only are there a variety of different shades of green, but also common colors: white, colorless, red, yellow, purple, black, gray and so on. (According to the different color combinations on the same piece of jadeite, you can also subdivide the varieties such as green on white background, spring belt color, yellow plus green, Fulu Shou and so on.) ）
Image source: Network
Among them, people take the yellow and red jadeite out separately to make a category, which is called "jade" in business.
Qing 17.19th century red emerald dragon pattern withholding | Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction 2012 (2) Lot
Second, how did "Fei" come about?
The color of jadeite can be divided into "primary color" and "secondary color" according to its color mechanism.
"Primary color": Jadeite is caused by chromogenic ions during the formation process.
"Secondary color": jadeite is caused by the infiltration of foreign colored substances after diagenesis.
The protagonist in today's article: red and yellow "jadeite" is the main representative of secondary color jadeite.
Myanmar natural red jade with diamonds and jadeite necklaces and earrings set | Beijing Poly 2019 Autumn Auction Lots
When white, purple or green jadeite is weathered, it happens that hematite or limonite in the surrounding environment accumulates along the gap between the jadeite particles, forming what we call "jade".
Natural Red Cat ring | Source: Original design of Foam Jewelry
In general, yellow jadeite is mostly caused by limonite, and reddish-brown jadeite is mostly caused by hematite.
Third, the red and yellow jade of market optimization flooding
Although the color in the jadeite market is dominated by green, the high-quality red and yellow jade colors are bright and bright, and are also loved and sought after by many consumers.
Burmese natural red jade and emerald rich ruyi pendant (pair) | Lots at Poly Hong Kong Spring 2018 Auction
In natural jadeite, the production of "red and yellow jade" with clean and bright colors is not much, and the vast majority of natural yellow jade and red jade are relatively dull, the color saturation is not high, and even with variegated colors.
This has stimulated the "optimization of red and yellow jade" in the market in order to meet the requirements of supply and demand.
Small Class:
* Optimization of jadeite: Natural jadeite after "physical method" optimization to make it more beautiful, usually called "optimization", this kind of optimization of the processed jadeite national standard stipulates that when identification can be compared with natural jadeite without optimization treatment, you can issue a "A goods" certificate.
* Jadeite treatment: Natural jadeite after being treated by "chemical methods" to make it more beautiful, usually called "treatment", this type of optimized treatment of jadeite pickled is commonly known as "B goods" jadeite, and dyed jadeite is commonly known as "C goods".
In the jadeite market, B+C goods after pickling and gluing and dyeing treatment are designed to "reshape" the original dry and light jadeite, and eventually most of them are made into green or purple jadeite with bright colors such as "Fulu Shou".
For the "jade" with poor background color, most of them are heated and "optimized" for natural red and yellow jade with poor color and poor quality.
Fourth, the heat treatment of jadeite
The heat treatment of jadeite belongs to the physical method of optimizing jadeite, which is classified as "optimization" among the many optimized treatment methods of jadeite.
The purpose of heat treatment is to promote oxidation, so that yellow, brown, brown jadeite into a bright red.
To put it bluntly, it is artificially accelerated the oxidation of the original natural environment, and artificially changes the color saturation of "jade".
Small class: 【Heat treatment method of jadeite】
1. Wash the jadeite of similar volume and heat it in the furnace (the sample is best wrapped and suspended in the furnace).
2, the heating rate should be slow, when the jadeite color changes to pig liver color, it begins to cool down slowly, and after cooling, the jadeite will appear red.
3. If you want to get a more vivid red, you can further immerse the jadeite in bleaching water and chlorinate for several hours to increase its brilliance.
After heat treatment, the color of red and yellow jadeite, which improves color, has not changed in chemical properties compared with natural red and yellow jadeite, and has the same durability.
And the optimized color is more vivid and beautiful, to meet the consumer's market demand for red and yellow jade, so heat-treated red and yellow jade abounds in the market, and even in the large-scale red and yellow jade carvings, eight out of ten are heat treated.
Fifth, how to identify the red and yellow jade after heat treatment
As mentioned above, jadeite optimized by physical methods can be identified in the same way as natural jadeite that has not been optimized.
Therefore, relying solely on the ordinary appraisal certificate issued by the jewelry appraisal agency cannot distinguish whether the red and yellow jade have undergone heat treatment.
However, there are always clues!
Because the heat treatment of red and yellow jade is basically the same as the formation of natural red jadeite, the difference is that the process of dehydration of limonite is accelerated by heating, so that it is converted into hematite in the furnace.
From the naked eye distinction:
1. The red and yellow emeralds after heat treatment optimization look drier.
Due to differences in the color formation process and the environment, in terms of appearance, natural red and yellow jadeite heads are better and more moist, while heated red jadeite has a dry feeling.
2. Color difference
After heat treatment, the red and yellow jade has a feeling of being too bright and heavy " false", and the high-quality natural red and yellow jade is bright but more natural and the water head usually does not dry out.
Laboratory divisions:
The basic properties of heat-treated jadeite are basically the same as those of natural jadeite, and conventional testing methods are not easy to identify.
However, with a large instrument infrared spectrometer, it is possible to distinguish the absorption zone of natural jadeite and heat-treated jadeite.
Natural jadeite in 1500~ 1700. Near 3500~ 3700 show a strong absorption zone, which is the absorption zone of crystalline water and adsorbed water; The heat-treated red jadeite does not have a strong absorption zone in the above two locations, indicating that there is no water in the firing jadeite.
- Systematic Gemology
Mr J said:
After the dull color of the "ugly duckling" becomes a "swan", the value is often much higher.
If the price is reasonable, it is understandable for everyone to buy a play.
But if you spend a lot of money and the merchant tells you that it is a rare natural color jadeite, you are deceived.
(Note: The source part of the figure in this article comes from the network, invasion and deletion or contact the source of the editor's remarks)