vintage chinese wooden puzzle mystery ball hanging ornament jade beads W/ tasse

Description

This is a wooden carved chinese puzzle ball (sometimes called a "mystery ball") that appears to have 5 layers. Chinese puzzle balls are works of art as well as a puzzle. Many are so fragile that to solve the puzzle involves risk of damaging the intricately carved designs. Solving the puzzle is done by lining up the holes in each layer using a pointed stick. The balls are created from a solid ball on a lathe. Holes are drilled towards the center and special L-shaped tools of different lengths are used to cut and carve the inner balls and set them free inside each othe starting from the innermost ball toward the outermost. The outer ball is typically the most intriquitely carved tht often includes dragons and flowers. The layers of the ball can symbolize different things such as a 4-layered ball may represent the four compass directions, a dragon may represent an emperor. This chinese puzzle ball is approximately 8” in circumference and hangs from a pink silk cord with jade bead accents. The inner balls of this particular puzzle are plain.
It is lovely.
It is excellent vintage condition with a small chip? To the wood. There might be a bit of fading to the silk tassels, I’m not sure if this is the way it supposed to be or if it maybe hung somewhere and get sun faded. Other than that it is beautiful condition.
See pictures!
vintage chinese wooden puzzle mystery ball hanging ornament jade beads and tasse.