very hard to tell from the small image, but it could be Ancient..some excavated dzis have no wear,and can look as if new.

Hi Jake and all,

Sorry to disagree, but while the bead in question may very well be authentic (I don't choose to weigh in on that subject because it is not my field of expertise).

There have been fakes or replicas out there for much longer than 30 years. I have heard tales from some Tibetan friends of replicas being traded around as much as 100 years ago and maybe older.

Here is another pretty good fake:

Jan

In the murky mythy history of dZi, you may be right. :)

Thanks Jan for this information. From what you say your Tibetan friends have told you perhaps I have a vintage replica.It is still a cool bead.

In a private email Jamey told me that the Germans were making "dzi look" beads that far back. Your image looks like that is where this bead was most likely made.

All my best ...... Danny

Jake,
I thought about it after my last post and came to the conclusion that all of the German made dzi beads I have seen are just that and no Chung Dzi,this makes me again think that this bead may be what I have always thought it was. VERY VERY OLD

All my best ....... Danny

Jake,
Seems funny this thread went from Chung Dzi to Dzi.

I had more than one person point out that the Germans made Dzi beads about 150 to 100 years ago, this is true as I found examples on the internet. The thing is that I have yet to find any German made Chung Dzi and the only reproductions of Chung Dzi seem to be those being made in China today and they are easy to identify as newly made, perhaps some were made in Taiwan (I know they made Dzi but don’t know if they made Chung Dzi).

Again I will say I have had this bead for at least thirty years (my memory is still intact) so at this point I will have to assume this bead is in fact a true Chung Dzi until someone can prove otherwise.

You asked about the perforations on this bead. Using an eye loupe on one end the hole only goes in about one third of the way and is very off centered once it gets going. On the other end the hole starts out centered but quickly goes way off center.

I have added images for you to look at but they are lacking. Unless I sell this bead prior to Tucson next year I will have it at the show, then you can have a close up look in your hand.

All my best ..... Danny

P.S. I purchased this bead and a few others at the same time, one such bead is the Jia Chua we are discussing right now on another thread.

this is the quality one must be really careful of.

mix this one with 10 other Authentic dzis, very dangerous.

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