Feicui (Jadeite) in the UK Market

A lecture at the University of Birmingham

In November, Kehan was invited to the University of Birmingham to deliver a lecture as part of the Feicui (Jadeite) in Focus programme — a market-insight and valuation overview of Feicui, the Chinese term that encompasses jadeite, omphacite, and kosmochlor. The talk was framed around three questions anyone approaching jadeite at a serious level has eventually to answer: what is it, is it real, and how much is it worth?

Jadeite occupies a peculiar position in the UK. It is a material of extraordinary subtlety whose valuation draws on a body of knowledge refined over centuries in Chinese trade — knowledge that the Western market is only beginning to encounter. The afternoon moved through the terrain where that distinction matters most: the question of authenticity in a market crowded with simulants, the framework by which jadeite is valued when a price list of the kind that exists for diamonds simply does not, and the commercial consequences of treatment, origin, and certification on a piece that may, to the untrained eye, look identical to its neighbour.

The session closed with a hands-on examination — attendees working directly with pieces, testing what they had heard against what they could see down a loupe. These are the moments Kehan enjoys most. Jadeite is a material that insists on being handled, held, and looked at slowly; it rewards patience, and it punishes shortcuts.

This is the kind of invitation Kehan accepts gladly. A standing interest of her practice is bringing jadeite expertise to Western audiences where it has long been under-represented, and the generous welcome at Birmingham — from both students and staff — made for a particularly enjoyable afternoon. Further lectures on jadeite and Chinese gemmological tradition are planned.