Hunting down dZi

Sadly I will not be making a trip to India this year, as family commitments and work restraints prevent me from going. Hopefully next year.

Tuesday 6th April

We managed to get the dealer to drop his prices on the Phum dZi and bought a nice small one in excellent condition, and also a very good quality unetched Chung dZi. Unfortunately these were the only purchases that we have made in this stage of the trip, and I am left with the inescapable feeling that this is the coming to the end of the road for bead hunting as far as India is concerned. I have looked at dozens of shops and stalls with old beads, and have only found a total of 3 people who were willing to come to a reasonable price, and 2 of them took a lot of hard bargaining to get them to understand that their prices were way too high in the first place.

My conclusion is that many of the dealers have no idea of the true market value of old agate beads they are selling, and in a number of cases, do not know how to identify the real from the clever fake. This is a risky combination both for them and for the bead collector, and I can no longer recommend that anybody comes to India to make such purchases of old beads without a good working knowledge of the current market prices, and an ability to detect the the real from the fake.

As for me, it is probably time to look elsewhere. I know that the Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam areas also produces many finds of old beads, so I may continue my travels these areas in the future and see what I can find there.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Monday 5th April.

Found a single shop with a good selection of beads at reasonable asking prices, and purchased a number of nice quality and sized etched carnelians(see photos). He also has some nice Phum dZi, but the prices are just a bit too high and this is another Tibetan who does not bargain so negotiation is not on the cards.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Sunday 4th April.

Arrived in Dharamsala and was immediately struck by the fact that there are very few dealers with old beads, and most of them are priced so high that it makes any purchasing almost impossible. I have come to the conclusion that there is little point in continuing to try to collect old beads in India any more. The days of picking and choosing the beads you like best and just buying them because the price is so reasonable are long gone, now the poorest quality, colour and patterned beads are being sold at such ridiculous asking prices that there is no basis to even begin negotiations, because they are not even worth 10% of what is being asked for them. However, there are always one or two people around who sell beads for the right price so, as I am already here then it is worth taking the time to seek them out, but it would not be worth the effort to come here just for one or two individuals.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Thursday 26th March.
Further research revealed that the Sanskrit dZi is not particularly old or rare and is worth nothing like the price being asked, one having sold in the last year in Taiwan for around $1000. Back to the drawing board.

 

 

 

Monday 16th March.
Due to the atrocities to Tibetans protesting about the Olympics, all the Tibetans have stopped work and are staging continual protests against this, so none of them are trading at the current time which means my last week in Goa has been essentially a waste of time, although it is a great place to do that. However I would rather use the time available for more important hings like trying to locate my special bead commissions, however it is really still a bit too early to be heading up to Dharamsala, so I don't expect the wasted time to turn out to be too valuable.

During this time, however, I met a Tibetan I knew from last year, and he has a special dZi bead with an ancient Sanscrit script as the pattern design. I sent photos of the bead to one of my commissions, and they are interested and would like to view the bead, but before they come over, a bit more research needs to be done on the script and its meaning, especially as the price tag attached is over $40,000. If the script can give any indication of a date or time of manufacture, it could possibly turn out to be one of the most important dZi in existance, as it would technically give an official date of approximate manufacture, at least up until the time that the language went out of use. If that date happens to be older than 700AD, which is highly likely given the age of Sanscrit, the bead could become the oldest officially dated dZi discovered, and it's value would go through the roof. We are a long way from that however, but it remains an exciting possibility. More on this as it unfolds.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

Monday 2 nd March:   Meeting ended poorly as he remained fixed about the wholesale prices which were already as high as Western retail, so very disappointing. Hopefully they will get more desperate as the season ends and put their prices down to a sensible level. Let's see what the flea market turns up tomorrow.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Weds 27th Feb.  I met up with an American acquaintance, Scott, who came over from Nepal to do a spot of bead hunting with me, so we headed up to the World Famous Wednesday Flea market in Anjuna in pincer fashion, ready to do honourable battle with the opposition, and hunt out some bargain beads. We found plenty of unetched beads, mainly very small ones, and the prices were still way to high to even begin serious negotiations, so I promised them I would return, but just didn't say when, so I'll let them stew in their juices for a bit before i even start the bargaining. I'm looking to pay less than half their asking price, so there is a fair bit of hard bargaining to come. I'm not bothered about anybody else buying them, not at the prices they are asking,
 
Later, we saw an Italian friend, he deals in dZi in a small way, and has collected many different types of recently manufactured, but extremely clever copies of old, pure dZi, that without a good eyeglass it is impossible to tell from the real thing. So I was able to show all these different copies to Scott, so that now he knows what to, and what not to avoid. He spotted a nice small Phum dZi bead that he has entered tentative negotiations with, but, like me, does not want to commit himself early. In bargaining, when you have time on your side, use it. We also saw a Tibetan at the Italian guy's stall, who had several nice strings of around 40 or so etched carnelian longevity beads, and also etched Carnelian soccer ball beads, as well as others with stunning decorations on them, so I have his phone number and will arrange a meet.

 

On February 21st, I am heading off on another of my bead buying trips, with two major commissions to fulfil. I have been asked to locate the ultimate dZi bead, a 9 eye pure dZi for a client, which at current market prices could be anything up to $150,000. The chances of locating such a bead for sale is not going to be easy as they are rarely sold, but hopefully my many contacts will locate one if it is.

The other commission is also for a top-of-the-range pure dZi, but they client is more flexible in this instance and is looking for any pure dZi that could be considered high end. So the chances of finding something suitable is much more likely.

I will be travelling to my favourite old haunts in the Himalayas once the weather warms up and the season starts in April, and as it has been four years since i was last up there, it is a much eagerly awaited visit.

 

Watch this space!