Thanks, Danny, for the extra detail. What strikes me is the purity of the stone - they must have gone through a lot of blanks to end up with these - and the luminosity of the colours. Also, they've survived in such excellent condition. They're all beautiful, and there's no accounting for taste, but the one I think I like best is the little tabular bead in the top row. I love the way the light shines through these.

Just for something a bit different, I dug out some agates from Funan (present day Cambodia and southern Vietnam), early first millennium Here's one of them with a nice layer of translucent crystalline stone sandwiched between two lines of opaque white - it's 3.5 cms.

All the best,

Will