Rare Tibetan Archaic Brown Jade Bead Necklace

This very rare necklace comprises 17 flattened barrel-shaped beads, and 15 cylindrical beads which flare at each end (31 in total). The beads have been hand chiselled and hand polished, and the holes through them are hand drilled. Each varies in colour but all are a type of brown-green jade.

The beads have much wear, especially the barrel-shaped beads and there is ample wear to the holes by which they are threaded together.

The barrel beads are particularly archaic and probably date to before the 12th century. The others are old but possibly later.

Jade and nephrite (over the centuries the two terms have been used interchangeably in China and Tibet) have been valued for their healing properties. The durability and hardness of jade has made it particularly valued. The wear then on the beads here is all the more remarkable and consistent with great age.

Currently the beads are threaded onto an old leather strap which is typical of threading in Tibet.

The necklace has been in a private English collection for many years. It was acquired from a source who acquired it directly in eastern Tibet in the 1970s from a Tibetan nomad.