S925 Silver Auspicious Beast Pixiu Spacer

A spacer bead is punctuation in a strand. A hundred beads all the same size read as dull. Insert one of a different material or size every dozen or so and the eye has somewhere to land, and the strand comes alive. It does not carry the weight of a main bead, yet its workmanship is the easiest to see, because it is small and flaws have nowhere to hide. You know a spacer bead by touch: whether the hole edge has burrs, whether it snags the cord, whether the corners are round.

This one is a pixiu. In old texts the word was a joint name for two fierce beasts, the male pi and the female xiu; later the two merged into one name and were grafted into the genealogy of the dragon's nine sons. Folk tradition says it has a huge mouth and no anus, so what goes in does not come out, which tied it to gathering wealth. That is the old story, and belief is optional. The earliest records simply note an unusual beast, without any of the later meanings; linking it to money came after the Ming and Qing.

The pose is crouching, front legs braced, head slightly turned, mouth open, a spine line running from the back to the base of the tail. Cast silver pixiu fail most often by blurring, features packed together until nothing is recognizable. This one keeps depth in the eye sockets and the corners of the mouth, so light falls in and casts shadow and the face holds. From the side the shoulders are a little wider than the hips, which is where the crouch gets its tension. The tail is the hardest part. Raised, it looks flimsy; dropped, it goes dead. Here the base is thick and the tip thin, the tail lying against the hind leg and finishing at the hip.

Proportion matters in use. With an 8 mm main bead, a 6 to 7 mm spacer sits best; a spacer larger than the main bead makes the whole strand top-heavy. Two or three on a strand is enough, and more looks like candied haws. Put one directly below the top bead, or one on each side in symmetry, and the strand will not lean. Some people string one alone on a cord as a small pendant, or wear two as a pair on a second bracelet. It looks like a set, though it is not one.

The bore runs all the way through, and doubled cord passes. Silver corners wear over time and will mark softer beads nearby, so with turquoise, amber or other soft material put a leather washer between. When the silver tarnishes, a pass with a polishing cloth is enough; do not dig the black out of the recesses, since that is the shadow of the carving. There is no need to take it off to wash your hands. Silver does not fear water; what it fears is shampoo left in the crevices, which darkens and stiffens with time. Do not yank when restringing. The hole is small and the silver edge will scrape the cord, so ease it out with a turn.