Dyed?? Jadeite Jade

[Baregems]

Both pieces have a spot RI of 1.66 and the key lone absorption band at 437.5 in the violet. I do not have any experience looking at jade for optical clues as to whether it is dyed. Anyone experienced in jade? How do these pieces look to you?

 

[Jadeite_101]

Hi just to answer the question in my humble opinion (not an expert just an everyday Jadeite collector) it looks dyed. Image 1 of the Budai you can see the green colors collecting on some of the fractures, and in-between the graining of the Jadeite. Some of the green also appear to “float” as they say suggesting it had been applied on. Image 2 of the “Bi” or Disc is a little lacking in detail but looks like the green is also floating or had been applied on. I bet if you were to take a loupe that the green would appear in-between the graining. A little trick I also like to do to see if colors had been applied on is to put the jadeite under long wave UV light. If it had been treated and dyed it will fluoresce. If not it would remain inert. This doesn’t always work though I find it works more often on dyes that had been mixed with polymers.

Hope that helps. Again not an expert just some things I learned along the way in collecting Jadeite.

 

[Bron357]

It is really hard, maybe impossible, from a photo to tell dyed jadeite from natural. Even Sotheby’s sold a jadeite jade bangle that was treated and their experts had missed detecting it.
One possible way is using a UV light. Often times the “dyed” green jade sections will be fluorescent, but not always. The levels of effort and the various means of making poor quality jade look better are many. And it’s so widespread becaus there’s a lot of money in it.
Aside from treatments, there is a whole world of understanding colour, texture and structure that also greatly affects the value of the piece. It takes a trained and experienced eye to make a judgement.
I know enough about jade to know I know very little.
I don’t spend more than $200 on any piece of jade because aside from the misrepresentation of the jade grade, there are also “fake” certificates. It’s one thing to spend $200 on a piece of jade actually worth only $20 and another entirely to spend $2,000 or more on a piece worth $20. The cost of testing with shipping and insurance to a gem lab can be over $100. So most would say only buy from a known and reputable source.