Chinese Enamel Jade Cicada Ring

This early 20th century ring features dark red and blue enamel...bats and Shou symbols with an earlier carved pale celadon jade cicada... which at one time may have been a pendent ...is lovely... and more.

The cicada, an insect symbolic of transformation, immortality and resurrection, has been carved in jade for thousands of years of Chinese history. There are over 2000 varieties of cicada, an insect with wide eyes on the sides of its head. They are found throughout the world, benign to animals and plants...they bury themselves in the earth, some for 17 years and then return to the surface and shed their skin.

 

This life pattern explains why the cicada is associated with rebirth... a jade cicada was sometimes placed in the mouth of the deceased. The cicada in China is similar to the scarab beetle in Ancient Egypt... where stones carved in the form of the beetle were placed on the chest of the deceased before burial.

Yesterday, I was wearing this ring and a jewelry dealer grabbed my hand and said "that's stunning!" ... and he was right!

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