Question- how does one tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese cloisonne beads? Is it mainly the design that helps you decide origin or the wire work technique, base metal such as copper, the colors used??..And what about age- how do you decide how relatively old or new the bead is? Are you able to give me some basic hints please?

This difference brings to mind an episode of Antiques Roadshow and an Antique Japanese red cloisonne vase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5aEVRIJrSo

Do the difference that point to origin in larger pieces like vases hold true for beads in any way?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV0ycg3hzZo

Thanks so much, Anne H.

http://www.beadiste.com/2014/09/puzzling-evidence-japanese-cloisonne.html

Once upon a time I actually corresponded with Josh Chamberlain about a large Chinese vessel that appeared to be a good copy of a 19th century piece. His online nickname of "Juice" is a good choice, I think, LOL.

As you know from Facebook, I have been showing the dragon beads I have been buying over the previous fifteen months (this having become a prodigious number). And, of course, I have enjoyed our exchanges about issues of identification and times of production—as well as re-reading your blog essays on these topics.

I bought a necklace at eBay that is primarily black cloisonné with flowers, and also including some nice melon-form carnelian beads. I bought it because (even though the flower beads are commonplace and mediocre), it has two dragon beads next to the clasp.

Having examined the necklace, once I got it, I have drawn the conclusion (based on the clasp and the stringing style) that this piece was composed in the 1980s. And when the dragon beads are considered, they are such a departure from most of the beads we see in the marketplace, I am inclined to believe that these may represent a (new then) standard of production for the 1970s (perhaps).

I am showing the necklace here, as well as the closure. I know it's difficult or impossible to see these beads as "dragons"—but once I have cannibalized the necklace for parts, I will shoot these beads to show their circumferences.

Jamey

P.S.—My package for you was delayed this past week due to rain and a dental emergency. I'm hoping to get to it tomorrow!

These being the years surrounding the Cultural Revolution probably didn't help - the Beijing Enamel Factory was directed by Mao to cease producing traditional dragons and phoenixes and move instead to themes about peasants and Chinese opera. By the early 70s, because Cultural Revolution themes obviously were not selling well to the export market in HongKong and the Friendship Shops, and sales of traditional arts & crafts were important sources of foreign exchange, the screws seem to have come off. Nonetheless, cloisonné designs seem to play it safe with strictly floral motifs, and that includes beads. Not even after Mao and Zhou Enlai died in 1976 was there a much of a return to the neat things that were made in earlier years (with the exception of dragons, because everyone loves dragons) and execution was much sloppier.

I also suspect that a telltale marker between 60s/70s beads and 80s beads is the style of cloud spiral in the background. By the 80s, it's all JingFa-style clouds.

I used the phoenixes in a necklace the seller related was purchased in China in the 1970s to illustrate this - one artist is familiar with the traditional iconography, another is not, and has difficulty fitting the elaborate bird onto the bead.

Your two dragons seem also to illustrate this - the eyes of the dragon on the left are not distinguished, but are filled with red enamel the same as its whiskers. Careless! The dragon on the right is much better - someone knew what they were trying to achieve.