The recent Bonham's auction on samurai items prompted me to take a closer look at a 12-inch plate in my collection, of a samurai's saddle, weapon, armor in a brocade pattern surround. The black portions of the poles for the naginata and banner show a fine glitter of goldstone, so likely the plate dates to post-1880s.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the beads is that the background of many of them is a chocolate brown enamel not seen in Chinese cloisonne.

The motifs in the beads are not as finely detailed as the plate's border, but one can see similarities in the little shapes, such as the tiny triangles. The enamel colors and the overall finish seems comparable, such as the use of pink.

I still wonder for whom or for what reason these beads were made. There's 29 of them, and the somewhat grimy cord appears to have been broken and re-knotted in a couple of spots. Maybe there were more beads at one time...