necklace

Court necklace, chaozhu, with 108 yellow tourmaline beads interspersed with three large jadeite beads, fo tou, three counting strings, ji nian, each with 10 red wooden beads and a teardrop-shaped drop of jade, amber and blue quartz. Also includes a long drop extension, bei yuan, that hung down the wearer's back, which has a large jadeite bead with stupa atop, fo tou ta, off which hangs a woven strap with an ovoid amber pendant in the middle and a blue quartz teardrop-shaped drop with gilt mount at the bottom.

Part of court attire worn by officials, nobles or court ladies of rank. This type of necklace originated from the Buddhist rosary. The three 'ji nian' were used by officials as an abacus for calculation.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
9.683
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 780 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
tourmaline; amber; jade; wood; quartz; cotton; gilding
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
SHAREABLE LINK

Continue exploring anthropology

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk