Spondylus shell from the coast of Ecuador was sacred to the pre-columbian Moche civilisation on the coast of Peru (100-800 AD). The shell was probably also used as a form of currency. The small pink beads in this necklace were hand-made and drilled in antiquity without iron tools. They are found as strings of beads in Moche graves in the desert.

I bought these from an antique dealer in Lima in 1980.

It was appropriate to string them with lava beads, copper and silver as all these materials are found in the Andes mountains.

Price - £165