Natural Orange Corals. Gem-quality old beads from Sth India. Gemstone Coral ranges in colour from pale pink through all the shades of orange to “ox blood” red. The orange of the above pair is a deeply saturated satisfying shade, and is and always has been, everywhere where Coral is appreciated, a loved and desirable colour, in China, in India, and in Europe.
In Europe the source of gemstone Coral is the Mediterranean Sea, mainly between Sicily and Tunisia. In the East, in India and China, the source used be the waters off Taiwan, in the China Sea, but that resource has largely played out, leaving the Mediterranean as the sole source.