Old Gemstone Coral, the larger round centre bead from an antique English strand of graduated Corals, the two smaller barrel-shaped old Sth Indian, from around the mid 1900s; all three Coral gemstones are of Mediterranean origin, and are well-matched in their lovely saturated orange-red colour, though the larger bead would have been harvested at least a half-century earlier than the two smaller Corals.
Here this fine Old Gemstone Coral has been put to a unique necklace with 3mm round nicely-matched Afghani Lapis Lazuli, of natural deep blue, professionally strung in Sydney by one of the City’s pre-eminent pearl threading establishments, on multi-strand blue silk, knotted each bead. Costly, but the best.

The opacity of these two gemstones, and their solid saturated colours, creates the strong contrast of these two gemstones together. (In the gemmology world, neither is “crystalline”: Lapis Lazuli is considered a “rock”, Coral “organic”.)

Note: the two 9ct Gold spacers flanking the centre Coral are solid Gold, not hollow beads, created in Sydney, used here to add a little weight to the centre of this strand, for a better hang. (The other two 9ct Gold spacers in this necklace, between the smaller Corals and the catch, are hollow, London-made. Australia has no manufacturer of such hollow Gold beads.)