Seven Stripe Chung Dzi, 48.2 × 12.4mm, warm dark brown agate, scratch marks disclosed (Ac-080620-7SChung)

We never retouch our photos. What you see is exactly what you will receive.

⚠️ Condition disclosure: This bead has two fine surface scratch marks on opposite sides. Both are fully photographed in Images 2, 3, 4, and 7. They are surface marks only — not cracks, not structural. Please review all images carefully before purchasing.

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This is the third seven-stripe Chung dzi in the collection, and the scratch lines on its surface are the most visible thing about it — so they are the first thing disclosed.

Two fine scratch marks run across opposite sides of this bead, each crossing the dark body zone between the stripe bands. They are documented in four photographs: Images 2 and 3 show each scratch in the full face views; Images 4 and 7 show them at close range where their character becomes unambiguous. Both are surface contact marks — fine, white, running at slight diagonals across the dark ground. At macro resolution (Image 4) the surrounding etching is clearly intact on either side of each scratch: the granular mineralised texture of the stripe bands is undisturbed, and the body surface continues uninterrupted beyond the scratch line. Neither mark is a crack, neither has broken the surface continuity of the stone, and neither affects the structural integrity of the bead. They are disclosed in full because that is what unretouched photography is for.

With that said: the rest of this bead's surface tells the same thousand-year story as its two companion seven-stripe Chungs in the collection, and tells it in a ground colour that positions this bead between the other two. Ac-081020-7SChung has a near-pitch-black body. Ac-041320-7SChung has a warm honey-brown semi-translucent ground. This bead sits in the middle register: a warm dark brown to grey-brown that is opaque where the first Chung's ground is translucent, and warmer where the first Chung's ground is near-black. The left end cap (Image 9) deepens to near-pitch-black — a localised darkening at the tip that reads distinctly darker than the body zone. The right end cap (Image 8) is warmer and lighter. This end-to-end tonal variation within a single bead is natural to the agate and gives this piece a different internal character from either of its companions.

The seven etched stripe bands read as sandy-tan to sandy-grey against the dark body. At macro resolution in Images 4 and 7 the etching texture is exceptional: the stripe bands show the most heavily mineralised, deeply granular surface of the three seven-stripe Chungs in the collection — the rough, pitted, encrusted surface of etching that has been in the stone for a very long time. The pitch-black darkened zones between the stripes are smooth and high-gloss where the original polish survives, with micro-pitting in areas where the surface has weathered over the centuries. The combination of high-gloss polished dark zones and rough mineralised stripe bands — visible in every full face view — is the signature surface character of an ancient Chung dzi at this age category.

Both tips are intact, confirmed in Images 8 and 9. The drill holes at each end are clean and age-consistent. No chips, no fractures at either end — the only condition items on this bead are the two disclosed surface scratches.

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The Seven Stripe Chung Dzi (七條瓊珠 / Qī Tiáo Qióng Zhū)

The Chung dzi (瓊珠) is the striped category of the dzi tradition — a bead defined by its horizontal band composition and the ancient etching technique that created its markings on a natural agate ground. Seven stripes are among the highest counts in the Chung tradition, concentrating the meaning of the continuous line — unbroken success, persistent forward movement, the path that holds its direction — into seven simultaneous registers wrapping the full circumference of the bead. At 1,000–1,500 years, a seven-stripe Chung dzi carries an age that predates most institutions, most cities, and almost every object in daily use. The scratch marks on this bead's surface are not failures of that history — they are part of it: marks left by a thousand years of handling, wearing, storing, and passing between hands across a span of time that no documentation can fully account for.

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Specifications

Motif: Seven Stripe Chung Dzi (七條瓊珠 / Qī Tiáo Qióng Zhū); seven acid-etched horizontal stripe bands; sandy-tan to sandy-grey etched lines; pitch-black darkened inter-stripe zones; warm dark brown to grey-brown agate ground; near-pitch-black darkening at left end cap
Length: 48.2mm
Diameter: 12.4mm
Form: Elongated fusiform; intact tips at both ends; slightly asymmetric taper; widest at centre
Material: Natural agate — warm dark brown to grey-brown body ground with tonal variation across faces; near-pitch-black left end cap zone; sandy-tan to sandy-grey acid-etched stripe bands; mixed gloss and matte-weathered surface consistent with extreme age
Age Estimate: 1,000–1,500 years
Condition: ⚠️ Two fine surface scratch marks on opposite sides — surface contact marks only, not cracks, not structural, fully documented in Images 2, 3, 4, and 7. Both tips intact. No tip chips or fractures. No structural cracks. No rework. No medicine digs. Both drill holes clean and intact.
Bloodspots: None observed
Product ID: Ac-080620-7SChung
Collection: Ancient Dzi Beads | Antique Dzi Beads

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You may also like

• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi (Ac-081020-7SChung) — companion seven-stripe Chung dzi, near-pitch-black ground, golden-tan bands, intact tips, no scratches, 49.4×11.9mm
• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi (Ac-041320-7SChung) — companion seven-stripe Chung dzi, warm honey-brown semi-translucent ground, tip damage at both ends, 49.1×12.8mm
• Antique Single Stripe Chung Dzi (At-020726-Chung) — single stripe Chung dzi, natural bicolour agate, ~500 years, 38.2×11.5mm
• Antique Six Tiger Stripe Carnelian Dzi (At-070822-6TS) — six etched stripes, carnelian tradition, 200–500 years, 50.7×12.9mm
• Ancient Fifteen Eye Lotus Carnelian Dzi (Ac-122924-15EL) — comparable extreme age, 1,000–2,000 years, heavily weathered surface

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From the blog

• What Makes a Dzi Bead Authentic? — on reading surface age markers, ancient etching texture, and the difference between scratches and cracks in antique agate dzi
• The Meaning of the Stripe Motif in Dzi Tradition — on the Chung dzi, stripe count, and the long tradition of horizontal banding in Tibetan protective beads

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A thousand years leaves marks. These two have been photographed from every angle, and they are part of the surface now.

We never retouch our photos. What you see is exactly what you will receive.

📷 We never retouch our photos. Every bead is photographed exactly as it is. What you see is what you receive.

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