Coral Necklace. Gem quality Coral ranges in colour from pale pink to blood red. The blood red is the most rare and understandably the most expensive, but by far the most loved and appreciated colour is the fine saturated orange shown here in this strand.
The 126 gemstones in the above Coral Necklace are old beads hand-cut in South India around the mid-1900s, from a single branch of Mediterranean Coral. Gemstone Coral from the Mediterranean has been imported into Sth India in branch form from ancient times, and probably always for the same purpose: the creation of beautiful Coral necklaces. A flourishing sea trade existed between South Indian ports and the dominions of Ancient Rome, and gem quality Coral from the waters off Sicily would undoubtedly have been part of it.

Central fluted handcrafted 20ct Gold bead is classic top-tier Indian Gold work, out of Sundar Nagar, Delhi, late 1900s, solid-walled, not flimsy. The centre 20ct Gold bead is flanked with two 3mm round 18ct Gold London-made beads; the spring clasp is also London-made 18ct Gold; the two flattish Gold beads one Coral removed from the fluted centre-bead are solid 9ct Gold, Sydney-crafted.

The necklace is professionally strung in Sydney on black silk, knotted each bead.