Skip to product information
1 of 8

Nicedony

3.0" Nine Dragon Jade Hand Carved Crystal Unicorn

3.0" Nine Dragon Jade Hand Carved Crystal Unicorn

Regular price $50.96 USD
Regular price Sale price $50.96 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

What you are buying

  • Natural rough only
  • Never dyed or treated
  • Carved from one block
  • Cut by hand, not moulded
See how we make them

An unicorn cut from a single block of nine dragon jade, 3 inches.

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 S100099
Material 100% natural nine dragon jade
Size 2.2 × 1.2 × 3 in (57 × 30 × 76 mm)
Weight see photographs

View full details

Ships worldwide. This piece is held at our workshop and ships internationally.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Checked and packed

    Hand-inspected before dispatch and shipped in shockproof packaging.

The Material

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
Water Bearer

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
House Guardian

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
Deep Root

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
Inherited Stone

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
The Form

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.

Our belief

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.