Nicedony
2.6" Nine Dragon Jade Hand Carved Crystal Frog
2.6" Nine Dragon Jade Hand Carved Crystal Frog
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What you are buying
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Natural rough only
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Never dyed or treated
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Carved from one block
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Cut by hand, not moulded
A frog in nine dragon jade at 2.6 inches — small enough to close a hand around.
Nine Dragon Jade is a trade name rather than a mineral species — the stone is a dense silicate marbled in green, cream and rust, and it is sold as jade for its hardness and polish rather than its chemistry. The mottling runs right through the block, so what you see on the surface is a slice through something continuous.
Animal subjects are judged on stance before detail. The weight has to sit right in the legs and shoulders, because a stone animal that looks unbalanced stays looking wrong no matter how fine the surface work is.
Item ID 2100119
Material 100% natural nine dragon jade
Size 2.6 × 2.2 × 1.6 in (66 × 55 × 40 mm)
Weight 135 g
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Ships worldwide. This piece is held at our workshop and ships internationally.
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One of a kind
Every carving is cut from its own block of rough. The photographs on this page show the exact piece you will receive — not a sample from the same batch.
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Natural stone, untreated
100% natural stone, never dyed or reconstituted. Veins, inclusions and small shifts in colour are how the material formed; they are marks of origin rather than faults.
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Carved by hand
Cut, shaped and polished by hand. Proportions differ a little from piece to piece because each one follows the block it came out of.
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Checked and packed
Hand-inspected before dispatch and shipped in shockproof packaging.
Nine Dragon Jade — The Long River
Sold under a jade name it does not mineralogically own, kept for the water and weather its dragons stand for.
Nine Dragon Jade is a trade name rather than a mineral species. The stone is a dense silicate marbled in green, cream and rust, and it earns the jade label the way most stones do in the trade — through toughness and the depth of polish it accepts, not through chemistry. We would rather say so than not.
The name points at the Chinese dragon, which is a water creature before it is anything else: bringer of rain, keeper of rivers, emblem of imperial authority. Nine is the number of completeness. The stone's own drifting green and rust bands are what earned it the association.
Flow & Fortune
In Chinese tradition the dragon governs rain and river, and prosperity is understood as something that moves rather than accumulates. Stones carrying the name are traditionally kept where money and work pass through.
Place it near the entrance of a workspace rather than locked away.
Holding the Threshold
Dragons in this tradition are guardians rather than monsters. The stone is believed to mark and hold the boundary of a space, which is why it is so often set at a doorway or on a family altar.
Set it where the household passes it daily, facing outward.
Steadiness Under Weight
Dense and cool in the hand, it is traditionally associated with endurance — the kind needed for long obligations rather than short efforts.
Hold it while making the decision you keep deferring.
What Gets Passed Down
Jade-named stones are among the most commonly inherited objects in Chinese families, and are traditionally said to carry something of each owner forward.
Given rather than bought for oneself, by long custom.
Why We Carve Animals
Animals in stone are old — older than writing. What a carved animal carries is whatever its own culture gave it: the elephant's memory, the owl's night sight, the bear's patience. The stone lends its own weight to the borrowing.
Keep it in view rather than in storage; these are traditionally companions rather than talismans.
Cut, not created
We believe a carving should carry the memory of the stone it came from. Every piece is cut from natural material, one at a time, and none of them repeat.