Vintage Chinese carved fruit pit Chinese immortal Lun Pin Mala bead. b7-wo287

The miniature folk art of fruit pit carving has been practiced in China for centuries. These are mid-20th century elaborate finely carved figural beads depicting one of the 8 immortals This is Lun Tung pin with the symbols of the sword and the fly-brush. These were purchased in Hong Kong in the early 1970s. Carvings with this level of handwork are not being produced today. Each is individually hand carved and so vary slightly in size and detail. Average size is 36 x 16 mm.