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Modify message : Re: If I understand your reply....
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Message	The beadmaker, as mentioned, is Nurwakit--whom I met at Jombang in 2008, and again in Borneo in 2010 and 2015. I will remind you that I discussed this with you at the time I showed the reproduction beads I acquired. Nevertheless, I would not argue that Nurwakit is the only Jombang beadmaker producing repro Borneo beads. I only know he supplies people in Borneo. I have re-read your first message--and the most-easy interpretation is that you are saying or implying, that the necklace you show is an heirloom piece--which it is not. And that was my point. And I will remind you that I visited the Tun Jugah Museum in Kuching in 2015, and photographed nearly everything in their displays. (Including their weaving exhibits in another room, since, as a trained weaver, I have some interest in textiles too.) I suspect it would be equally accurate to say Nurwakit BRINGS his beads to Borneo (since I have seen him there twice). I don't have to judge Borneo heirloom beads "from photos"--though I am mighty glad I have the photos I made from various collections I have documented since the late 1970s. But the heirloom beads I own can easily be compared to the Javanese repro beads I also have (that date from 2004 and since then). Regarding the origins of Borneo heirloom beads, I am reasonably confident I can distinguish the Venetian beads from most others. The corpus consists of powderglass and wound beads that are plain (origin more-or-less unknown with a few exceptions--these being blue drum-shaped beads from Sumatra); a few patterned beads that are virtually unique (meaning I have not seen them elsewhere); imported ancient Western Asian/Egyptian beads (post-Roman Period, and consistent with many rolled-pad beads we know from West Africa and Central Asia); the somewhat variable imitations of chevron beads (two types, and variable within the smaller beads); and Venetian beads--that form the largest group of patterned glass beads, and have been the most-desirable types among Borneo people. I have been a contributing part of the "debate" related to origins of Borneo heirloom beads for about forty (40) years now. And I am the principal researcher suggesting a Venetian (or at least European) origin for a great portion of the patterned beads. Particularly the lukut beads. (Possibly the striped beads too--though I am not 100% yet.) JDA. Display HTML as text.
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