AGrade Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise and gemstone Coral, nine handcut gemstone beads securely twist-wire integrated into a sturdy Silver “cable” link chain.
The above three gemstones have been used in bead jewellery from most ancient times, when the sources of these gemstones were the same as those in the above necklace, thousands of years later, the Coral from the Mediterranean and the Lapis Lazuli and Turquoise from the Khorasan region of what today is known as Central Asia.
The AGrade Lapis Lazuli is from the rugged Badakshan region of north-east Afghanistan, up close by Tajikistan, exactly the same source that supplied Ancient Egypt four thousand years ago. The deep blue colour, called ultramarine, of AGrade Lapis is unique in the gemstone world. The natural deep blue of the centre-bead of the above necklace is, on a scale of 10, about 8; it simply does not get much better.
Turquoise and Lapis are the two rock gemstones in the gemstone world. The four Turquoise above are not AGrade, however, they are real, and natural, and pretty in their own right, possessed of the true Turquoise blue colour.
The four Corals are of proper gemstone orange-red colour, old handcut beads from South India, imported in branch form from the Mediterranean since antiquity, cut there into smallish beads for the lovely Coral bead strands that are still a favourite in that part of the world.