I have a couple of very similar pendants.
Mine were supposed to come from Afghanistan.
The shape seems to be Islamic at anyrate.
Mine have what looks like a colouring treatment to bring out the banding but it hasnt taken evenly. Would you say that's the case with yours?
By the exactness of the thickness, cutting to shape and drilling I have to guess that mine may have been made in Idar-Oberstein, with the Islamic market in mind.
This shape sometimes is seen with arabic lettering or script on it.
Stefany
yes, I agree with you.But, the banding on mine is even and very fine! I did put one on a necklace that I strung but, just took it apart because, I've decided to sell these three and keep just one in my collection. I find it surprising that I have only seen the ones that I bought a long time ago. The next time, I saw another is when I saw one up for sale on a website.
Thanks for your information.
"Mine have what looks like a colouring treatment to bring out the banding but it hasnt taken evenly."
You mean someone had treated them on purpose to make them look more beautiful?And the colour is not what it was originally?I am not so familiar with those kind of stuff and know little about their history.What I want to know most is how long had it been since man began to treat agate on purpose("colouring treatment"for example)It is said that this kind of technique had not come into being until Qing Dynasty in China
"Would you say that's the case with yours?"
No,of course not.I have only several agate beads coming from Inner Mongolia.You can find them from my post:"Chinese beads of different ages"(I will take some close-look picture next time).Most native people in China believe those kind of beads were probably made during Liao Dynasty(from the drilling and the surface).But there is no records show there is "colouring treatment" at that time...
Christina
Hello Christina,
I have discussed the topic of artificially-colored agate many times here and at other sites.
The enhancement of stones, particularly agates may go back in time to as early as 3000 BCE at the Harappan culture (present day Pakistan). The primary treatments involve heating the stone; soaking the stone in mineral-rich solutions, followed by heating or burning; applying chemical solutions (popularly called "etching" and discussed here just a few days ago), followed by heating or burning. All of these treatments are more-or-less permanent. There are many temporary treatments too, some of which involve dying the stone whatever color is desired.
At Germany, colored agate is is referred to as being "beizen" (sounds like "BITE-zen")—meaning soaked in an acid solution (and heated). This should not be confused with temporarily dying a stone. It is believed that the stone works at Idar-Oberstein were developed as long ago as Roman times; and it is recognized that some typical treatments (such as soaking a stone in a sugar solution to make it brown-to-black) were also know in Roman times. But in any event, regardless of how long ago thee practices were introduced to Germans, they became the most proficient and nearly exclusive practitioners of this art well into the 20th century. In the 1980s, these treatments were transfered to Brazil (from where the Germans had been importing agate since about 1880). In the 1990s, the Chinese learned to do this work. (Prior to that time, they were importing German colored agate to Hong Kong, to make such beads.)
The most common colored agates are carnelian and "black onyx." Both start out as undistinguished pale or nearly colorless gray, translucent agate (from Brazil). Although most people think these stones "are natural," in fact they are not.
The success of these coloring treatments depends on the stone used. It must have "porosity" to accept the mineral baths the stone is submitted to. When the stone is not very porous, the color achieved may be blotchy or patchy, inconsistent, or almost absent. The German agate pendants shown in this thread of messages are just such products. They were intended to be banded carnelian, but didn't take the color well. I have seen hundreds of specimens of such treatments, from out of Germany.
In the past, China was a significant producer of carnelian beads. One has only to see the quantity and quality of these beads to appreciate this fact. It has never been determined whether they understood heat-treating agate, or if they had access to excellent sources of natural carnelian (including the beautiful material from which pema raka beads were made for Tibet, and for other beads—including prayer beads). But regardless of Chinese output, the beads of India far outnumber the production of any other region, particularly in antiquity (and particularly if we include the beginnings of these industries, as happened at Harappa). It is a well-known fact that at India, the agate that is gathered from river sources is already rich in iron impurities, and only requires heating to become carnelian. Other chemical treatments are unnecessary. but not all of this material turns out beautifully-red. It likewise may be pale or blotchy.
Chinese beadmakers have been temporarily coloring stones for a long time. Easily since the Ching Dynasty, and probably much earlier. One example is quartz beads that have been heated to make them crackle, and are then dyed to add color. The red ones look a lot like tourmaline or even ruby. Fossil walrus ivory has been dyed brilliant green to copy malachite or Imperial jade likewise since the Ching Dynasty (if not earlier). For as long as current Chinese beads have been coming into the States (since ca. 1980), the dying of stones to make them look like "jade" has been routine—particularly for serpentine, but also actual jade (jadeite).
As for "records," these were and are secret processes—as are the details of many aspects of art and artifice. It would be unreasonable to expect to find formulas; or it would be fortuitous. But probably the artificial treatment of agate (possibly with the exception of carnelian, sard, and onyx—since these are simple treatments) may have been unknown to China. In point of fact, I believe that many or most of the artificially-colored agate beads now found in China (with the exception of certain generally distributed banded beads from antiquity, common to Tibet and Central Asia), are actually from places like India, Afghanistan, and Burma, and only recently made it into China. (As I have already mentioned.)
I have studied these issues since the early 1980s, and didn't come by the information I have easily. It involved considerable research, and viewing thousands of beads—as well as some helpful guidance from Si Frazier (a local mineralogist, and mentor). Zi beads from Tibet are one of my specialties, and it would be impossible to understand their nature if one did not know about the artificial coloring and other chemical treatments of agate. This art made those beads possible. The Chinese apparently made simulants of zi beads over 100 years ago (except using serpentine), so they had some familiarity with the processes—but nothing like what they have developed since about 1993.
Jamey
Jamey, thanks so much for the immense amount of time that you put into your posts. There is enough information here to be the foundation of a lengthly lecture and represents numerous years of study.
Hello Jamey,
Thank you for your information.
One more question:The two agates followed ,Qing Dynasty.Have they ever been colour-treated?
Hello Christina,
These look like very typical Chinese stones. What I like to call "jelly-carnelian." They have a nice orange color, and a translucency that is fatty and looks good enough to eat. As I remarked, I don't know whether Chinese stoneworkers heat-treated or other manipulated agate to enhance its color. The least one can say is that it is very possible or even likely.
However, with exceptions, the result of these treatments does not yield a visual appearance that can be spotted or distinguished from "natural carnelian." These processes mimic or accelerate what happens in nature—so we should not expect to see a difference. It is especially difficult to say much from a photograph on a screen, because (we all know) the color may be manipulated or may appear unexpecetedly different on my screen, versus any other screen. But what I see (or think I see) in your image is conventional and expected.
The exceptions I have seen recently are the new carnelian beads being produced in China. These began to be sold in 1997 (the year I went to Taipei and Beijing), and I believe I was the first American to bring them back to the US. The red treatment is quite distinctive, in-part because of the quality of the agate material used, and partly because of their version of the coloring process—it yielding a rather unnatural and unexpected red color, that is quite different from the carnelians found/used/made at other industries, such as India, old China, South America, etc.
Jamey
There are not any real statistics related to the issue of "natural" versus "enhanced" stone beads.
But let's look at it this way.
India has made the largest volume of carnelian beads, for the longest time, exported to the most far-away places around the world. Their output must be greater than any other industry, and possibly as great or greater than all the others put together.
We know that Indian carnelian is essentially "created" via the process of heat-treating; and that in modern times practically ALL of the commercial carnelian has come from Germany and is actually artificially colored.
If someone says "this carnelian is natural," (not regarding any particular industry it may come from), MOST of the time that would be a mistaken statement.
So, if you assume that any carnelian object is artificially enhanced (whether by simple heating or chemical baths and acids), MOST of the time you would be correct.
JDA.
