Rose Carved Cherry Amber Beads

I still remember the first time I saw one of these beads. Eighteen years ago, a friend (also a fellow bead lover) and I were searching our favorite flea market.

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We came across a short string of these on an old rotting brown thread-about 20 beads...not enough for a necklace and very expensive...but we loved them so much that we decided to split the cost and each took half the string, just so we could own them. Over the years, I mixed them with other beads in necklaces that I made for myself.

I have continued to buy these whenever possible...and now there are two long necklaces and I realize that these were originally part of a Mandarin Court Necklace.