TRADITIONALLY, two inch beads -not cloisonné, but often round heavy beads- were used to hold a scroll flat when suspended as a wall hanging (not on the tabletop) in China, as well as other households when decorated in the Chinoiserie style.

The first two inch round scroll weight beads I handled -in the early seventies- were not cloisonné but were antique inside painted spheroid clear glass ones. I am comparing the size & shape, not the material, with potential usage as scroll weights.

I have never seen an antique or pre WWII round cloisonné bead two inches in diameter. Easily mistaken for cloisonné, I have experiened cylindrical champlavé scroll weights nearly two inches in length. And, I have seen huge antique champlevé "beads" as a decoration on a lamp base.

Yes, lamp finials and ceiling fixture pulls are also wonderful options for beads in the age of electricity. But lamp pulls would probably be smaller than a two inch sphere; they would most likely have been chosen to fit comfortably in the hand.

Enterprising merchants often export anything that can be resold at a profit. And what the end user does with it is normally of little concern to the seller.

Actually, the only valid generalization is: "There is an exception to every rule." But we try to make generalizations because we learn from them. Generalizations can also provide insight when questioned...a hazardous sport.