Chinese White Jade Beads

My photographer had to spend a lot of time with these beads...  they have a life and personality that changes with the time of day and light.

He offered to buy them so that he wouldn't have to photograph them anymore... I said "no!". So he presented me with six different lighting and background combinations and asked me to: "take my pick!"

I believe that these beads were originally part of a Mandarin Court Necklace. The 28 smaller 11 mm beads are semi-translucent white jade with pale green undertones... carved with a stylized Shou symbol on 4 sides. The three 20mm larger beads are an opaque pale green with the Shou on 2 sides and provide a stable contrast for the liveliness of the smaller beads.

These beads came from a man who told me; "my mother brought back a much larger necklace from a visit to China in the 1960's and had her jeweler make it into several separate necklaces which she gave to family and friends as a souvenir of her trip."

It makes me wonder... how many Mandarin Court Necklaces met a similar fate?

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.