Large Coral bead, 16.15mm x 9.25mm dimensions, 4.7 grams weight, an old Tibetan bead, excellent gemstone orange-red saturation, with some calcite inclusions, indicating its source as probably the China Sea, from the waters off the coast of either Japan or Taiwan.
A rare fine old Large Coral bead, in very good condition.
Coral has since antiquity been much appreciated, in ancient China, in ancient Egypt, in south-east Asia; in ancient Rome, the demand for Mediterranean Coral from the rich trading states of southern India was so great that it was often quite scarce in the very region of its source.
In the 2000s, demand from the East still dominates the trade for Coral, from Tibetans and Chinese predominantly.

Gemstone Coral is an organic gemstone, not crystalline, is not hard and is easy to carve, an art practiced especially well by Chinese artesans over thousands of years. However, though not a tough gemstone, Coral is durable, witness the often very fine condition of Coral jewellery from Victorian England about on the market place today. And Coral has the rather wonderful capacity to, if scratched, say, when worn as a ringstone, self-polish with continued wear.

9ct Gold chain and flanking fluted 9ct Gold beads are Italian. The above Large Coral bead necklace is a Sydney creation.