Yes, white jade can be valuable. The price or “value” of white jade depends largely on the color of the piece, as well as on the shape and size. White jade was considered to be the most precious and valuable stone in ancient China. Its value was equivalent to the way the West values diamonds and gold.
It was highly prized for its beauty and durability, symbolized purity and moral integrity, even indestructibility, and was often used to make the so-called funeral jade costume for the richest and most important people in the country. Today we know that white or creamy nephrite is much more common and not as valuable as white jadeite, which is a very rare stone and can still be appreciated more than gold in Asian countries. For example, one of the most expensive ancient objects made of jade is a Neolithic vessel called a jade cone with a sacred face of humans and animals from the Liangzhu culture. Because of this decisive factor when evaluating this type of jade stone, some people treat or bleach jade to hide and eliminate any signs of discoloration before applying it with colored polymers; these artificially altered jadeites are not as valuable as their untreated counterparts.
According to an old Chinese proverb (gold has a value, jade is priceless), it's easier to value gold than to establish the value of jade, because it often exceeds the value of the stone. Green jade (and the darker the green, the better) is actually the type of jade that costs more if you want to buy a piece. Keeping the jade under a stream of water for a few seconds is fine, but submerging it in standing water for hours isn't. However, it is also true that nephrite, which includes beautiful white jade (as well as the range of light yellow and creamy brown jade gemstones with lamb fat and chicken bone), has been steadily increasing in recent years and may one day match its more colorful cousin.
There is evidence that jadeite-derived jade was marketed as early as the 14th century in Burma, demonstrating what white jade stone meant to society from the beginning. They also discovered that jade stones are partially useful in calming inflammation, due to how naturally cold jade is even when it comes into contact with warm human skin. Often in the world of crystal healing, white and green jade are used relatively interchangeably. The most expensive examples of jade are found in the so-called Imperial Jade color, which is an intense and vibrant emerald green.
Many people believe that white jade has healing properties, so it can even be found in everyday items, such as key chains and paperweights. In these cases, jade stones are most valuable when they are thick, symmetrical and proportional; there should be no defect or imperfection on the surface of a jade stone visible to the naked eye and some shapes must be uniform, without flat spots or irregularities. The purpose can affect the value so much that the small jade object can be much more expensive than a larger-scale jade sculpture.
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