South Red Agate Zodiac Antique Three-hole Bead Set

The three-hole bead is the piece a strand closes on. Three holes: one takes the main string, the other two run out side by side to the stupa bead and then the disciple beads, and a string of beads branches at this point. People who assemble their own strands like to buy it as a set, because matching a stupa and disciple beads to a single three-hole bead in colour and size is hard work. A matched set is easier and looks tidier. The piece is also called the Buddha head, and old hands use the two names interchangeably.

The name Southern Red describes a colour, not a place of origin. Persimmon red, cherry red, ice-float: the names pile up. The stone is fine-grained and, held to the light, has a slightly gelatinous look, as if it had set. Its fault is cracking. No Southern Red without cracks, as the saying goes, meaning hairline fissures are unavoidable: do not expect to find a flawless one, only check whether the crack sits on the surface and whether it will chip. And the red is not one red; beads from a single batch differ among themselves.

Antiquing makes a new piece look old: the surface dulled, the crevices darkened, the corners rounded, the mouth of each hole smoothed until it is no longer sharp. This is not forgery, it is a taste, and it is not the same thing as an old piece. Say so plainly when you sell, and do not be vague. An antiqued Southern Red holds its own next to copper or old bodhi seed, while bright silver makes it jump. How deep the ageing goes has no standard, but within one set of six the tone should be even.

The six designs are all named for good fortune: Cash Cow, Big Sheep, Money Rat, Boom Tiger, Wealth Pig, Treasure Rabbit, each pairing a zodiac animal with a lucky phrase. People building a set are usually short one or two, the ox and the tiger especially, which sell fast. String all twelve together and the sizes have to agree, or the row goes up and down, and the ageing has to match too; a visible difference in tone breaks the line. Which of the six to take is a question of your animal, not of the two words in the name.

When you assemble a strand, the three-hole bead should be a shade larger than the main beads. Smaller and the join looks pinched; much larger and it overpowers. The holes must be true. A slight skew and the whole strand runs crooked. Southern Red dislikes heat, so keep it off a radiator and out of an ultrasonic cleaner, which shakes up hairline cracks you cannot see until later. Store it in a bag, not in a drawer heaped with metal. And run a thread through the holes before it ships: a customer who gets home and finds the line jamming is a customer lost.