Jade is an intriguing gemstone, mostly green but found in a variety of other colours such as lavendar and mutton-fat yellow. Interestingly, jade is not a single gemstone but two gemstones: jadeite and nephrite.
For centuries it was assumed that jadeite and nephrite were the same stone but it was only in the 19th Century - and due to the scientific advances of the time - that these two similar stones were found to be different.
Perhaps for the sake of convenience we still refer to both stones as jade rather than calling them by their separate titles.
But they have enough similar properties to both be accurately known as jade: a predominately green colour, a greasy lustre and a not-too-dissimilar hardness.
