I think someone replaced a missing ojime with a little souvenir of their sojourn in China during the 1920s-30 - the wear on the cord seems to indicate the piece was actually used, although of course that could be faked, I suppose, if someone were putting together a "marriage" piece to sell at auction as an authentic intact piece.

The Dutch were allowed into the port of Nagasaki during the Edo period and they recycled their beautiful 17th century leather wall covering by selling it to the Japanese -who repurposed this fine leather for gentlemen's "purses." Kimonos don't have pockets, therefore men carried pocket substitutes suspended from their obi.

To me, the cord does not appear to be worn at all. Besides, the abrasive flat hole of the Chinese cloisonné bead would have abraided the cord -causing it to tear apart with daily usage. Part of the function of the Ojime bead is to prevent the cord from wearing; therefore the lip of the perforation should be smooth.

Interesting and amusing about the wallpaper!

Although farmers would use any bead (such as a seed) as a slide closure for their purses, a Japanese gentleman would go a step further. Beads from other countries were adapted for functional usage. But beads were usually smaller and quieter than the large garish Chinese cloisonné bead.

I suspect that your chartreuse tabular bead was added for commercial purposes since 1980, during the golden years of netsuke/ojime/inro collecting. How do we know this? In London, you can easily study acquisition dates on inro ensembles in museum collections and old auction catalogs from Christie's and Sotheby's.

Again, I am reminding researchers how important the quality of the perforation is in an ojime; the hole must provide smooth passage of a cord. The Japanese word "ojime" literally translates: "slide closure." Ideally, the bead will have a perforation large and smooth enough to move up and down on a cord without cutting it.

For unverifiable reasons, there are extremely few antique ojime in proportion to a wealth of old netsuke and inro. Why? I can only guess that fewer ojime were made, and more were lost. Because ojime are much smaller, they have less fashion impact than netsuke and inro and therefore less money was spent on them. And more were lost because they were small and the beads could be repurposed as traditional jewelry.

These are only three quarters of an inch in height or 18mm.

Frederick, would you mind getting out your loupe to examine the cloisone bead with the twisted wires to see if they, as well as the enamel, were ground level? They appear to be so in the photo.

The Chinese use of twisted wire cloisonne seems to be a constant from Mandarin necklace beads to the present, where it is the technique of choice for cheap and colorful trinkets, as it requires no grinding of the enamel. The wires always stick up above the glass (or epoxy, as it may be nowadays), as the cloisons are only filled once and then fired, so the enamel sinks into the wells and maintains its glossy firepolish.

I have yet to see a Chinese piece, other that some from the Kuo factory in Taiwan, that uses twisted wire for anything except the fill-once-and-firepolish method.

However, Japanese cloisonne work sometimes displays the use of twisted wire, often in the same design as flat or tapered wire, with the enamel surface polished smooth, wires and enamel at the same level. Very experimental?

Curiously, this blend of twisted wires and flat wires in the same piece also shows up in pieces from the Kuo factory in Taiwan, 1970s-80s. [pic attached] I've often wondered if the Taiwanese cloisonne craftspeople adopted Japanese transparent enamels and twisted wire and eschewed the opaque mainland enamels that were unavailable to them because, as Nationalists, they had fled the country; and Japan, during the 50 years they occupied Taiwan, likely established some cloisonne workshops in the usual course of small business expansion into new territories? Also Japan was handy as a source of the enamels? More unsolved mysteries.

The cloisonné ojime with the twisted wires was ground level as well as the enamel,

"Too sexy for your shirt", Frederico!

Beautiful pieces - the left even remarkable for (a special) reason beyond beauty!

No question - Ojime beat glass beads any time!

I thought of this ojime when viewing this netsuke today

How intriguing ! Dyrham Park, an 17th century mansion nr Bath, England, has an entire room decorated in Dutch leather 'wallpaper' . The colours now faded but originally vibrant. The house displays many Dutch & Chinese influences and artefacts: Delft tulip vases, Kangxi porcelain etc. Did the Dutch 'Tulip Mania' ever reach China ?

Strung upside down?

Some care seems to have been taken with the wirework framing the slots. The stem of leaves/flower/bud pattern is stereotypical and appears on a lot of small bric-a-brac from the early decades of the 20th century. The comparatively thin enamel inside the cloisons reminded me of Florence's lantern beads necklace, with their intricate little floral and bird designs.

http://www.beadiste.com/2015/01/puzzling-evidence-rare-deco-chinese.html

Just a FYI that was passed along to me. Aren't you relieved that such a nice necklace wasn't subject to a mistake?

That sloppy dragon seems to have been very popular...

The re-stringing on the green cord was recently done by the vendor, and is not original to the piece.