I wish I'd seen Debby's necklace before someone else swooped in and bought it!

The eBay tassel pendant's seller says it was purchased "25-30 years ago" and is "vintage, not antique."

Possibly these beads might be among products from the Chinese workshops organized in the 1950s to earn foreign exchange from traditional arts - cloisonne, lacquer, ivory carving, jade carving.

Trade with the US took off in the early 1970s after the end of the 20-year embargo, hence the appearance of these items in US auctions of estate items purchased 30 years ago?

Although I cannot re-locate the site, recently found a Chinese site that distinguished between the varieties of cinnabar lacquer, and reported that the old craftsmen in the Beijing workshop were few in number, dying off, and not being replaced by younger craftspeople. Nobody wants to spend their life working patiently with toxic sap and being paid pennies for their skill, I'm guessing.