Four Stripe Agate Dzi, 32.3 × 14.3mm, deep cool grey-brown barrel, both ends chipped (At-061426-4Str)

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

⚠️ Condition disclosure: This bead has impact chips at both ends. The right end carries more extensive damage; the left end carries a moderate chip with a fracture line. Both are fully photographed and documented in Images 2–5. Please review all images carefully before purchasing.

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No other bead in this collection has this shape — and the shape is why the four stripes read the way they do.

Every other dzi in the collection is fusiform: elongated, tapered, pointed at both ends, with a central equator as its widest point. This bead is none of those things. It is a true barrel — cylindrical, flat-ended, with the same diameter from one end to the other and a flat face at each terminus. The four cream-white stripe bands that encircle its body do not converge, do not taper, do not elongate as they approach end caps. They run perfectly level, perfectly horizontal, perfectly parallel — the same spacing at every point of the circumference, from the first stripe near the top of the barrel to the fourth near the base. The barrel form turns the stripe motif into a different kind of statement: not a line journeying toward a point, but a band that simply closes on itself, goes all the way around, and stops.

The four stripes divide the barrel into five horizontal registers: a narrow panel above stripe one, a medium panel between stripes one and two, the widest central panel between stripes two and three, a medium panel between stripes three and four, and a narrow lower panel below stripe four. This spacing is not strictly symmetrical — the central panel reads slightly wider — and that slight asymmetry gives the composition a gravity toward the centre that a mechanically regular arrangement would not produce. The etching lines themselves are cream-white and granular, with the rough mineralised edges of genuine acid-etching clearly visible in Image 6 at close inspection.

The agate ground is deep cool grey-brown throughout — a tone that carries a slight purple-grey undertone distinguishing it clearly from the warm chocolate-browns of the agate dzi beads elsewhere in the collection. The surface shows fine parallel longitudinal lines: natural agate banding and layering in the stone structure, intrinsic to the material and visible in every photograph as a subtle directionality in the ground. This is not surface damage — it is evidence of the natural stratified structure of the agate from which the bead was formed.

Chip disclosure — full. Both flat end faces have sustained impact damage. The right end (Images 2 and 4) carries the more extensive damage: a significant multi-fracture chip removes a large section from the upper-right quadrant of the end face, exposing the warm reddish-brown interior of the stone — a natural bicolour revealed by the breakage. The drill hole at this end remains intact and centred. The left end (Images 3 and 5) carries a moderate chip around portions of its circumference, with a thin fracture line running from the chip zone toward the drill hole area; the drill hole itself is intact. Both chips show rounded, non-sharp edges consistent with old impact damage accumulated over the bead's age category, not recent breakage. Neither chip affects the body of the bead, the stripe motif, or the functional integrity of the drill channel.

This bead stands apart from every stripe-motif carnelian in the collection. The Three Stripe Carnelian (At-122324-3TS) is a fusiform carnelian with terracotta-red and pitch-black bicolour ground and three stripes in a tapering elongated body. The Six Tiger Stripe Carnelian (At-070822-6TS) is a fusiform carnelian with six horizontal bands across a long barrel. This bead is agate, not carnelian; barrel-form, not fusiform; carries four stripes on a cool grey-brown ground; and presents in a format — the flat-ended cylinder — that has no equivalent elsewhere in this collection.

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The Four Stripe (四條紋 / Sì Tiáowén) Motif

In the Tibetan dzi and Himalayan protective bead tradition, the horizontal stripe carries the meaning of the continuous line — a mark that does not end, a path that persists, a success that accumulates without interruption. Four stripes concentrate this meaning fourfold, and in traditions where numbers carry their own resonance, four also points toward the four directions, the four winds, and the completeness of a protection that covers every compass point simultaneously. A bead where four stripes run the full circumference without a gap — as they do here, on a barrel form that has no front or back, only a continuous surface — expresses this meaning in its most literal form: the line goes all the way around, closes on itself, and leaves no opening for what it keeps out.

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Specifications

Motif: Four Stripe (四條紋 / Sì Tiáowén); four horizontal cream-white etched bands running full circumference; five dark panel registers between and beyond the stripes
Length: 32.3mm
Diameter: 14.3mm
Form: True barrel — cylindrical, flat-ended, uniform diameter throughout; no taper; no fusiform curve
Material: Natural agate — deep cool grey-brown ground with slight purple-grey undertone; natural longitudinal banding lines in surface structure; cream-white acid-etched stripe lines; warm reddish-brown interior revealed at chip sites
Age Estimate: 300–500 years
Condition: ⚠️ Impact chips at both ends — right end more extensive (large multi-fracture, upper-right quadrant, interior exposed); left end moderate (chip with fracture line toward drill hole). Both drill holes intact and functional. No rework. No medicine digs. Natural surface banding lines present throughout body (intrinsic material, not damage).
Bloodspots: None observed
Product ID: At-061426-4Str
Collection: Antique Dzi Beads | Antique Stripe Dzi

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You may also like

• Antique Three Stripe Carnelian Dzi (At-122324-3TS) — three stripes, carnelian, fusiform, bicolour terracotta-red and pitch-black ground, 48.7×9.4mm
• Antique Six Tiger Stripe Carnelian Dzi (At-070822-6TS) — six stripes, carnelian, fusiform, bicolour end caps, longest carnelian at 50.7×12.9mm
• Antique Five Tiger Stripe Carnelian Dzi, Reworked (At-030823-5TSR) — five stripes, carnelian, rounded barrel, reworked single stripe visible beneath composition, 25.2×11.0mm
• Antique Tiger Tooth & Stripe Carnelian Dzi (At-040524-TTStr) — stripe and tooth combined, tri-tone carnelian, 49.8×12.7mm
• Ancient Four Rail Track Carnelian Dzi (Ac-010825-4RT) — four-register framework in carnelian, octagonal form, 500–1,000 years, 28.9×11.2mm

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From the blog

• What Makes a Dzi Bead Authentic? — on acid-etching, agate banding, and how to read genuine surface age markers
• The Meaning of the Stripe Motif in Dzi Tradition — on the continuous line, the four directions, and the protective logic of stripe-motif beads

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Four lines. One circumference. No end and no beginning — and no other bead in this collection shaped quite like 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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