Richard Hughes examines the historical sources of jade, along with the remarkable renaissance in Chinese jade carving that has occured since the 1990s.

Jade: China's Gift to the World

by Lotus Gemology's Richard Hughes

Jade has been treasured by the Chinese for some 8,000 years. Yù (玉), the Chinese word for jade, is one of the oldest in the Chinese language; its pictograph is distinguished from that for “ruler” only by one dot. Outside of China, people generally think of jade as the jadeite jade from Burma, where the finest quality is a vivid green. Within China, however, jade is a stone of an entirely different character, with the finest quality being white. Lotus Gemology’s Richard Hughes has been studying jade since he first visited Burma at age 19. He will offer a brief survey of the places jadeite and nephrite come from and then delve into the real Chinese jade, the true “Stone of Heaven.”

When
Sunday, 1–2 October 2022

Where
Copenhagen Gemmological Symposium
Odd Fellow Palace
Copenhagen, Denmark