Assuming the light blue color in the pictures is accurate I think these are Chinese.
That exact color is not shown in Joyce's article http://collectiblebeads.com/chch/index.html but I think it is very close to what I've seen in China and maybe have some samples.
I can't be sure if the expensive necklace is blue or purple, but this other seller has both colors so take your pick. See the 5th photo.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170803412810
I love chevron beads, but I haven't collected many because of my confusion between old beads and new reproductions, and because of prices for old beads. Auctions like the one leave me out completely. However, if I can own a bead that looks almost exactly the same for $5, why not?
Joyce, I have 4 large Chinese chevron beads, each strung on separate heishi shell strands. Gotta love those huge holes. I've been wearing one or the other if them recently. The bead receiving the most comments is the yellow/white/black bicone included in the box of mixed goodies I won from you on BCN last year. Thank you!
Glad you enjoy them. Some of the Chinese chevrons are really well done! And as the years go by it will be harder to identify some of them from old ones. The blue and white are so rare anyway that I have never seen any confirmed originals available for sale. This is the collector niche where new repros could slip right in........
Looking at the closest image, the large beads look very very authentic.
The smaller ones do look suspect to me. Everything else the seller has looks authentic. I've peered at the blue and white Venetian in Picard vol. 7 the seller mentions.
This is a strand I'd love to see in real life. Of course, understanding the possibility of well made new Chinese! But at the same time, rare authentic beads DO appear sometimes on the market.
Maybe JP can comment.
Although the price is not realistic, I think they are original Venetian.
The picture is tricky because the middle bead seems huge, but it is only 20 x 16mm and consistent in size with the one on the Sick sample card and the few we found in a shop in Venice in the 1980s.
We have not seen the tiniest ones size 7 x 5mm like those on that strand, but the Venetian usually would make chevrons in different sizes.
The Chinese have made the same colors sequence but the only samples I have seen so far are really big, even huge.
Unfortunately this color sequence is probably the easiest to duplicate which makes it very difficult to judge from a picture.
This website is however showing great stuff and we have done business lately with them, acquiring outstanding beads for the museum.
JP
Thank you John,
The seller responded to my inquiry. The seller has had them, purchased at auction in London, for about 10 years. I've been watching the beads on offer from this seller for more than a year, and I have to say they have some of the nicest Euro-traded Venetians on "the Bay", and the representation has been very accurate. So, I believe this is one example where the originals are so rare (despite the simplicity to reproduce) that it is easy to mistake them as "new Chinese". I believe these are the real thing - 20th c. Venetian chevrons.
here is a Chinese same sequence chevron, they were sold in 4 colors two or Three years ago in Tucson in the Rodeway inn next to the big tent.
Large size: 132 x 58mm
JP