Antique Tiger Tooth Dzi, cream-dominant ground, warm rose-cream, 28.5mm × 11.9mm, 300–500 yrs (At-053126-Ta4)

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

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On most dzi beads, the cream is the motif. On this one, the cream is the sky.

The two tiger tooth marks sweep diagonally across the face in a bold chevron formation — dark chocolate-brown against a ground of warm rose-cream — and the effect is the inverse of the usual dzi reading. Here the dark zone is the statement and the cream field receives it, framing each tooth mark the way open air frames a mountain ridge. The result is a bead that reads as expansive and uncluttered even at 28.5mm × 11.9mm: the pale ground gives the motif room to breathe, and the motif fills that room decisively.

The body form is notable even within the Tasso family. At 28.5mm long and 11.9mm in diameter, this bead has a wide, low-profile barrel character — broad and rounded across its full mid-section, with a generous dome profile visible in both the end-cap images. This is a disc-barrel proportion: it sits low and wide in the hand rather than standing tall. Compare At-093024-TaBS3 (29.4mm × 14.0mm), which holds the widest Tasso proportion in the collection, or At-052526-TaBS (29.9mm × 12.3mm), which is longer; this bead's 11.9mm diameter and its particular rounded mid-section give it a distinctly compact, dense quality.

The agate ground is a warm rose-cream — not white, not sandy, not honey-gold. It carries a subtle blush warmth, and under the photographs' lighting the natural banding within the cream zones is visible: soft horizontal growth layers in the agate, undisturbed and intact. This banding is one of the clearest indicators that the cream here is the stone's natural unmodified field, not an applied bleaching. The dark chocolate-brown of the tiger tooth zones has the same organic, diffuse boundary — the edges between dark and cream are soft and gradational, not hard lines, because they follow the agate's own internal geology rather than an engraving tool.

The surface throughout is highly polished and glassy — a deep, sustained lustre from three to five centuries of handling. Both end caps are the same warm rose-cream as the body ground, smooth and rounded, with small centred drilled holes.

One surface feature visible in Images 2 and 3 warrants specific mention. Within the dark chocolate-brown zone on the second face, there is a distinct rounded dot — approximately 2–3mm in diameter — of a slightly paler grey-beige tone. It sits within the dark field, not at its edge, and has a natural inclusion character: not a chip, not a crack, not a medicine dig, but a small surface feature within the agate matrix itself. We are photographing it exactly as it is. It is part of this bead's specific identity, and any buyer will see it immediately in Images 2 and 3.

No cracks. No bloodspots. The weathering consistent with the 300–500 year age estimate is present throughout: fine micro-surface texture in the dark zones, visible most clearly in Image 5, alongside the glassy polish of the cream-dominant faces. Both elements — the polish and the micro-texture — coexist because different zones of the same bead weathered differently depending on their material density. That differential is authentic and cannot be manufactured.

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The Tiger Tooth (虎牙/Tasso) Motif

The Tiger Tooth dzi — known in Tibetan as Tasso and sometimes rendered in Chinese as 虎牙 — is among the oldest and most elemental motifs in the dzi tradition. Its diagonal sweep marks are interpreted variously as tiger teeth, horse teeth (Tasso literally refers to the horse in some regional traditions), or as a wave-form in its most abstract reading. Across all interpretations, the meaning is consistent: strength, courage, and the ability to overcome adversity. The tiger in Tibetan symbolism is a protector figure — fierce, present, and unafraid. A bead bearing the tiger tooth is understood to transmit that protective fierceness to its wearer: the capacity to face difficulty directly, to hold one's position under pressure, and to move through obstacles rather than around them. This is not a bead of gentle fortune. It is a bead of strength.

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Specifications

• Motif: Tiger Tooth / Tasso (虎牙); two large diagonal chocolate-brown tooth marks in chevron/Z formation across opposite faces; cream field receives the dark motif
• Length: 28.5mm
• Diameter: 11.9mm
• Form: Wide low-profile disc-barrel; broad rounded mid-section; generous dome profile at end caps; compact and dense in hand
• Material: Ground colour — warm rose-cream natural agate with visible horizontal banding; motif zone colour — deep chocolate-brown; end caps — warm rose-cream matching body ground (no colour contrast)
• Age Estimate: 300–500 years (antique)
• Condition: No cracks; highly polished glassy surface throughout; fine micro-surface texture in dark zones consistent with age; one small rounded natural inclusion (approx 2–3mm, pale grey-beige) visible within the dark zone on Face B (Images 2 and 3) — a natural agate feature, fully disclosed
• Bloodspots: None
• Product ID: At-053126-Ta4
• Collection: Antique Tiger Tooth / Tasso Dzi Beads | Antique Dzi Beads

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You May Also Like

• At-052526-TaBS — Antique Tasso/Tiger Tooth Dzi with Bloodspots, 29.9mm × 12.3mm — motif defined by agate movement; dark-dominant ground with cinnabar; compare dark vs cream-dominant ground
• At-092924-TaBS2 — Antique Tasso Dzi, pitch-black, bloodspot constellation, 28.7mm × 11.2mm — darkest Tasso in the collection; direct contrast with this bead's cream-dominant field
• At-093024-TaBS3 — Antique Tasso Dzi, wide disc form, deep chocolate-brown, 29.4mm × 14.0mm — widest Tasso in the collection; compare disc proportion and body colour
• At-053126-3DETT — Antique Three Diamond Eye & Tiger Tooth Dzi with Bloodspots, 27.5mm × 13.0mm — tiger tooth motif combined with diamond eye; terracotta-red agate; contrast with this bead's cream ground
• At-082525-4ETT — Antique Four Eye & Tiger Tooth Dzi, 46.4mm × 11.5mm — tiger tooth combined with eye motif at larger scale

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Further Reading

• How to Tell Real vs. Fake Dzi Beads: The Complete Collector's Guide — natural agate banding and organic motif boundaries are covered as authenticity markers
• Natural Dzi Beads: When the Stone Writes Its Own Story — directly relevant: this bead's cream field and soft motif boundaries reflect the agate's own geology

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A 300–500 year old tiger tooth dzi in warm rose-cream agate — where the pale stone is the sky and the dark teeth are everything moving through it.

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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