Kingfisher Feather Beads, Oval with Turquoise Diamond Shaped
SKU: ASO-248
Sale price
$65.00
Shipping calculated at checkout
Only 13 in stock
Description
- These beads are priced and sold individually
- Very rare antique silver oval beads adorned with ring of oval shapes around the widest part of the bead. Like slashes in Elizabethan sleeves that showed off layers of luxury fabrics, these wire rimmed shapes provide contrast between the silver and the feathers.
- The process is similar to the famous cloisonne techniques except that rather than enamel, kingfisher feathers were used.
- While other Chinese art forms gained fame worldwide, kingfisher jewelry was little known outside of China. The technique, known as Tuia-tsui or Diancui, has been used on hairpins, headdresses, fans, and beads for over 1000 years.
- It involved collecting and carefully cutting tiny kingfisher feathers to the desired shapes and adhering them to the metal.
- Kingfisher feather beads are even more rare than hair pins because they were made for a shorter period of time in the final days of this art form, which ended during the Chinese Communist Revolution. The last workshop specializing in Tian-tsui closed in 1933.
- The beads are in stunning condition, having been preserved in a box with special compartments like a miniature egg carton, to hold each bead protected and separated from others. They came to us with the inventory of a Washington DC Chinatown store when it closed around 2020. I'm delighted to finally offer them to you now.
- Every serious bead collection should have at least one of these!
- And they can be made into jewelry. Admittedly fragile, I recommend only using them in earrings, where they are much less likely to be damaged by contact with coarse fabrics or harder substances.