jade, jadeite, fei cui, Guatemala, gems

A pair of ear clips set with an opaque green material were submitted to the East Coast laboratory for identification. Although the material resembled jade (figure 71), the jewelry was constructed in such a way that we could not conduct certain basic gemological tests, such as refractive index and specific gravity. However, a 437-nm absorption line visible in the handheld spectroscope proved them to be jadeite jade. Furthermore, the negative color-filter reaction and lack of a dye band" in the visible spectrum proved these to be natural-color jadeite. The distinctive color, luster, and – on closer examination – coarse-grained nature of this material were reminiscent of jadeite from Guatemala (for more information, see the article on jadeite from Guatemala by Hargett, Gems & Gemology, Summer 1990, pp. 134–141).These 35-mm hololiths are quite similar in appearance to ancient carved Mayan ear flares. Once a material has been conclusively identified, it is still prudent to try other tests to either support the identification or uncover something that might be amiss. Sure enough, short-wave ultraviolet radiation revealed-by the pale blue fluorescence of the cement (figure 8) that one of the jadeite pieces had been repaired with a nonjadeite material (it had no 437 line). Close examination of figure 7 shows how well this replacement component blends in."