Welcome, Turquoise Hounds! We want to introduce a fabulous webby and colorful Chinese turquoise: Hubei.
The northwestern portion of Hubei Province in China provides a variety of green and blue turquoise. The deposits were discovered while looking for iron ore. This region yields the richest iron deposits, providing the green turquoise with its color. Blue turquoise is found within the same region, and in appearance it is often compared to turquoise from the renowned Nevada mines. Some of it is on par with the coveted robin’s egg blue Persian turquoise.
The Hubei Province is a large producer of high quality turquoise partly because of its geology and climate. Turquoise is commonly found in shallow deposits in arid regions, which is much of the Hubei province.
The Chinese are known to have worked with turquoise as far back as 3,700 years ago, maybe longer. Because the Chinese preferred Jade to turquoise, it has been difficult to pin down the earliest use of turquoise because so few artifacts exist.
Chinese turquoise is gaining global popularity, and is eagerly being bought at a time when many mines of the American Southwest have been depleted. Right now, the price is affordable, but it will increase in the near future.
As always…
Happy Hounding!
