Superior Rare Cornelian, rare bead necklace. Cornelian is the orange-brown variety of Chalcedony, the finest type of Agate. The above Cornelian centre-bead is of the best colour and quality. An old bead, handcut in the native “barrel” form, its origin was the ancient Cornelian mining region of Gujerat West India, source of high quality Cornelian from antiquity to the present, supplying the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Middle East and Europe.
The above bead, mined in Gujerat in the early 1900s, was cut and polished there specifically for trade into Nagaland in the far north-east corner of India, where the gemstone was highly valued and worn in long strands on twine.
In the above strand the Cornelian is flanked by two very old flat-cut beads of banded Agate, with two more larger roundish beads from the same ancient Afghani strand a little further up on both sides of the centre Cornelian.
There are also ten beads of old gem-quality Corals from Sth India, and segments of rare old red and dark blue Naga glass.