Yes, what is one to think of your beads, Nick, after becoming familiar with objects in similar colors and motifs that likely date to the first third of the 20th century?

It takes years of training - not to mention possessing basic artistic talent to begin with, such as skill in drawing and composition - to make a cloisonne piece. And the glass enamels and metals are also the product of centuries of experimentation to discover what works.

Not until the 1960s were any of the traditional motifs and enamels changed much. At least one artist in the Beijing enamel workshops, Jin Shiquan, was apprenticed to a famous cloisonne atelier in 1922, but had to spend the 18 years encompassing the Japanese occupation in 1937, World War II, and the civil war in his hometown village on the northwest outskirts of Beijing, pulling a rickshaw, doing piecework at home, selling soy milk and almond tea. Not until 1955 was he able to resume earning a wage by making cloisonne.

So when I see beads like yours, Nick, and little boxes such as this 3x5 example, I wonder, are the beads contemporaneous to the box and other such small items, or are they the work of an older artist once again making cloisonne after the Beijing workshops were revived, using the traditional motifs and enamels he learned in his youth? Or the work of new artisans working under the direction of an older artist?

Jin Shiquan retired in 1984 and died in 1992, so we can't ask him. A Chinese book on his life and works is available via Amazon, which is how I learned more about him.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/7534428491