The two silk tassels are what you would often see on a nice old Chinese sewing basket from the early 1900's. The sewing baskets also contained Peking glass beads, glass ring "handles" and old Chinese coins. Most of you should be familiar with what I'm talking about..
EDIT: I did find a Chinese bead strand that used the tassels in a 19th century mala of carved peach pits: http://susandods.com/picturebook/index.php?gallery=PictureBook/08-09-16-2_Chinese_Carved_Wood_Mala_Beads&image=1_1.JPG