A fourteen carat and yellow jade bead necklace. This stunning and unusual necklace is a very striking piece. The necklace was made for, and retailed by famed luxury San Francisco department store; Gumps.

Yellow jade is not a separate species of jade so much as a colour story within jade itself. In gemology, “jade” refers to two distinct materials: nephrite and jadeite. Either can present in yellow tones depending on chemistry, inclusions, and how the stone has aged. For a collector, that distinction matters, because it shifts the conversation from a marketing label to what the material actually is, and how it was worked.

The colour is typically tied to trace elements and oxidation, often producing a spectrum that reads more like natural light than pigment. The best examples show a restrained range: honey, straw, apricot, old parchment, sometimes deepening toward caramel. In high-quality material, translucency does the real work, giving yellow jade its depth and internal glow, rather than a flat, painted colour.

Culturally, jade’s history is anchored in East Asia, with China in particular shaping centuries of connoisseurship, carving traditions, and symbolic value. Yellow carries its own resonance within that visual language, long associated with status and refinement. Today, “yellow jade” is also a term that can be stretched in the market, so precision remains the mark of a serious offering: identify whether the piece is nephrite or jadeite, describe the tone honestly, and let the quality of the material, carving, and surface finish speak for itself.

The clasp is made in solid fourteen carat yellow gold and is marked on the back for "14k" and "Gumps". The top side of the clasp has a Chinese symbol carved into the gold in a three dimensional design. The symbol depicted is "Shou". The Shou symbol is the Chinese character for longevity. It is less a decorative flourish and more a direct blessing, a wish for a long life made permanent in metal, stone, porcelain, or silk. When you see Shou on an object, it is there for a reason. It signals celebration, respect, and the quiet seriousness of marking time.

Historically, Shou appears across Chinese decorative arts, especially on pieces intended for gifting and display. It is closely tied to birthday milestones, long-life celebrations, and the broader tradition of auspicious symbols. The character is often enlarged, repeated in patterns, or rendered in stylised script so it reads as motif as much as language, an emblem you recognise even before you “read” it.

Shou also sits within a wider visual vocabulary. It is commonly associated with Shouxing, the deity of longevity, and often appears alongside other long-life symbols, especially the peach. Taken together, these motifs form a coherent message: health, time, and the privilege of enduring. In the best examples, Shou does what great design always does. It carries meaning with restraint, and it lets the object speak without needing to raise its voice

The necklace comprises of forty eight of perfectly size matched jade beads with a bead diameter 9mm. The total length of the necklace is twenty inches long, so it sits just below the collar bone. 

The condition throughout is superb. 

Strung in America, circa 1980's