For instance, one vendor routinely sells cloisonne minaudiere purses as vintage 1910, when they seem to be products of the late 1970s.

Other vendors replicate this lore, despite the fact that this type of little purse was not even invented or popularized until the mid-1930s.

However, when a seller recently offered two of these purses in pristine condition with this statement:

"My mother brought two of these sweet enamel cloisonné clutches back from China around 1980"

I consider that credible evidence, as it matches the stylistic and fashion history clues as well as likely Chinese export production post-1971 and post-Cultural Revolution.

That said, surviving relatives often have inaccurate beliefs as to when the deceased acquired something - for jewelry in particular, the prevalent mistake is that something must have purchased when the wearer was young and glamorous, as if middle-aged women and old ladies never buy anything. So something purchased by Grandma from Nieman Marcus in 1989 magically becomes an item from the 1950s.

You will also no doubt recall that I did an examination of cloisonne beads in 1930s-early 1940s costume jewelry and Japanese obidome, noting the comparatively huge holes.

The question is always, are things that are stylistically dissimilar the result of a separation in time (different decades), a separation in place (different workshops, different cities), or both?

As to the carnelian & agate necklaces, the unanswered questions in my mind is that if they are pre-1971, for whom were they made? With what were they worn? So far I've found no credible answers to these questions.