Vintage Chinese Carved Melon Bead Stone Necklace

People have been carving stone into the melon form in China since before recorded history. The necklace is mid-20th century. The tradition behind it is not. Each bead is hand-worked into lobes — approximately 16 to 18mm across, no two cut exactly alike — and strung on hand-knotted teal cord that closes with a simple tie. About 26 inches. No clasp, no hardware. The color is olive and gold and something between the two that has no name and shifts with every movement, every angle, every change in light. It does not sit still visually and it does not sit still in the hand. Cold. Dense. Heavy in a way that registers somewhere below the wrist. The stone is slow to give up its chill. Some things resist. Believed to be jade. The condition is mint.

River put it on and left the tie loose so the strand settled low against her skin. The cold of it made her go still. She stood there and let it find its place and something passed between her and the piece that does not have a name. She turned one bead at a time in her fingers before she let it go. Each one cold. Each one different. It took her a while.