Vintage Three Eye Dzi, 39.3×13.3mm, cream and pitch-black agate, 1980s Taiwan (V-071126-3E)

🌿 Ethically sourced. Unretouched photos. What you see is what you receive.

The three eyes on this bead do not share the same face — one sits alone on the cream-dominant side, and the other two face each other on the pitch-black side, and the faces in between carry the wave connectors that link them.

Image 1 shows the cream-dominant face: a single large eye centred between two vertical dark stripe bars, the cream ground extending above and below the eye zone. Image 3 shows the opposite face: pitch-black ground, two eyes sitting side by side in the upper register, cream bands running below. The same bead, turned 180°, reads as an entirely different composition — pale field with one eye on one side, dark field with two on the other. Images 2 and 4 show the connecting faces where the wave-chevron pattern — the structural element linking the three eyes around the circumference — runs in cream against the dark field on one face and dark against cream on the other.

This is not unusual for the three eye form, but the degree of contrast between the two primary faces is what makes this piece distinctive. The cream zones are genuinely cream — not white, but the warm, slightly textured tone that 1980s Taiwan agate develops naturally over four decades of age. Under close inspection, the cream surface has a fine granular quality that a new Taiwan dzi's fresh white zones do not carry. Images 1 and 3 both show it clearly: the cream fields have a settled, slightly matte surface that sits differently from the high polish of the dark zones.

The dark zones — confirmed as pitch-black from flat-lit white-background photographs in images 3 and 4 — are clean and consistent. Both drill holes are visible in images 5 and 6, each small and centred in the warm grey end caps that are characteristic of this production period. The warm grey of the end caps is a colour that sits between the cream of the motif zones and the dark of the body — a transitional tone created by the agate's natural structure at the drill points.

At 39.3×13.3mm, this bead is proportionally wider than most of the Taiwan pieces in the collection, giving it a presence on a strand that a more slender fusiform would not.

The Three Eye Motif

The three eye dzi is traditionally associated with the Three Jewels of Buddhism — the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha — and with abundance: wealth, health, and longevity arriving together. Three is also the number of the past, present, and future, making the three eye dzi a piece understood to carry protection and benefit across time as well as the three pillars of Buddhist life. Among Taiwan dzi from the 1980s, the three eye is one of the most consistently produced motifs, and pieces from this period now carry four decades of genuine age alongside their symbolic meaning.

Spec Block

Motif: Three Eye — 1+2 split layout: one eye on cream-dominant face (image 1), two eyes on pitch-black face (image 3); wave-chevron connectors on side faces
Length: 39.3mm
Diameter: 13.3mm
Form: Barrel, fusiform
Material: Agate — cream-dominant ground one face, pitch-black ground opposite face; warm grey end caps
Age Estimate: 1980s Taiwan, approximately 40+ years
Condition: Good. Natural age-consistent surface granularity on cream zones — genuine patina, not damage. No cracks or chips. Independently confirmed from photographs.
Bloodspots: None
Product ID: V-071126-3E
Collection: Taiwan Dzi · New & Vintage Dzi · All Products

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Other vintage Taiwan three eye dzi in this collection:

• V-070226-ThE-001 — 56.4×12.1mm, brown and black two-zone ground
• V-070226-ThE-003 — 56.2×12.4mm, dark brown ground, companion to ThE-001

Further reading: Tibetan Dzi Beads: Luck, Fortune, Meaning · Dzi Motifs and Their Interpretations

Every bead at Ancient Dzi Shop is photographed without filters or retouching. What you see is what you receive.

🌿 Ethically sourced. Unretouched photos. What you see is what you receive.

Photo line: All 6 photographs are unretouched. Image 1 shows the cream-dominant single-eye face. Image 3 shows the pitch-black two-eye face. Images 2 and 4 show the wave-chevron connector faces. Images 5 and 6 show the two drill-hole end caps.

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