Yuan Chinese glass bead

Southeast Asian and early Chinese ceramics by Abhaya Asian Art

Abhaya Asian Antiques

Yuan Chinese glass bead

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Directory: Antiques:Regional Art:Asian:Chinese:Glass:Pre 1900: item # 713495

Please refer to our stock # 1689 when inquiring.

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Abhaya Asian Antiques
26 A G/F Tung Wan Tau
Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Tel/Fax 852-29847509

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$300.USD/$2300.HKD

Very unusual and rare beautiful five lobed bead from China. There is very little written up on Chinese glass and beads in English. The vendor I purchased this from claimed it to be Liao (907 CE – 1125) and was originally sourced from North Eastern China. There are a few anomalies with this piece in that for the most part, most Chinese glass items tended to be opaque in nature until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, while this bead has a translucence where one can see the swirls of white deep inside. It should be noted that the Liao and Yuan favored amber and dark colored ornaments so this color would be suitable to their tastes and Asian beads were made on metal wires which would be coated with a white substance as to be able to pull the bead off without it sticking to the metal. One side of the bead has a mat texture which is clearly delineated in the enlargements suggesting that this might have lain partially buried in a tomb so that half the bead would have changed due a chemical reaction with soil. While this is a relatively informed speculation on my part and I will guarantee this piece to be an old bead at least a 100 years or more. As the only reference I can find is in a book- Antique Chinese Glass with a similarly shaped blue bead (last enlargement) dated as Yuan, I would tentatively date it as such but would be willing to consider any knowledgeable opinion as to its age and origin and amend the description. The only thing I can say for certain this came out of China and has at least a hundred years of age. Obviously this a piece for the specialist collector. L: 3cm/1.1in and D: 3.5cm/1.3in.