Modern Reproduction Antique-style Nine Eye Motif Dzi Bead (A3)

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

This bead is vintage, not antique. Crafted before 2000 from natural agate using the traditional dzi crafting technique and given an antique-style finish, it has since gained over two decades of its own age, and we want that clear from the first line.

This bead belongs to our family of vintage antique-style Nine Eye dzi and shares their continuous S-meander composition: three open C-ring eyes per side face, joined by an unbroken stepped line that travels all the way around the bead.

It is the slimmest of the family at 57.2mm long and 12.4mm in diameter (its siblings are 13.6mm and 13.8mm wide), a real difference you would feel holding them side by side. The ground is a warm olive-grey to dark brown in every flat-lit photograph, lighter and warmer than the deep black ground of its black-ground sibling. Both end caps are clean: one vivid orange-red, the other warm honey-orange to amber-gold, each with a round, unobstructed drill opening.

We disclose its age directly: this is not a centuries-old antique dzi. It was made in that visual tradition before 2000, and today it is a piece with twenty-plus years of genuine age since it was finished, different both from a brand-new bead and from an antique.

The bead is an elongated barrel with smoothly rounded shoulders, tapering gently at both ends. Fine reddish-orange flecking appears within the honey-gold parts of the motif in several photographs; this is natural colour variation in the agate, not cinnabar, and no bloodspots are visible. The gloss is even across both faces, with no cracks, chips, or medicine digs.

The Nine Eye Motif

In Tibetan dzi tradition, the Nine Eye is regarded as the most complete of all dzi motifs, the King of All Dzi. Nine is a number of totality, gathering the protective and fortune-bringing qualities of dzi into a single design. Read more in Why the Nine Eye Dzi Is the King of All Dzi.

Specifications

• Motif: Nine Eye (九眼天珠); S-meander construction, three open C-ring eyes per side face
• Length: 57.2mm
• Diameter: 12.4mm
• Form: Elongated barrel, smoothly rounded shoulders, tapered ends
• Material: Natural agate; warm olive-grey to dark brown ground; honey-gold to amber-orange motif lines with cream-white outlining
• Age estimate: Vintage, crafted before 2000 with an antique-style finish; not an antique
• Condition: No cracks, chips, or medicine digs; drill openings clean and round; even gloss
• Bloodspots: None
• Product ID: V-FA-062026-9EA3
• Collections: Faux Antique Dzi | New & Vintage Dzi

Looking for an antique piece?

• Antique Nine Eye Dzi, warm brown, 54mm
• Antique Nine Eye Dzi, amber on dark agate, 59mm
• Browse Original Ancient Dzi

From the same family: Vintage Nine Eye, deep black ground and Vintage Seven Eye, warm dark brown.

From the blog

• The Nine Eye Dzi Bead: Symbolism and Significance
• How to Choose a Dzi Bead

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