What's the approximate date for these? Early C19? It's interesting that the Chinese did not seem to have this technology at that time.

Best regards,

Will

Perhaps this red bead is Japanese?

Thank you for your post about Japanese beads.
Please give me a chance to say my opinion little bit about it.

I think your beads in 1st picture and your beads in 2nd picure were made in deffernt Period in Japan.

Beads in 2nd picure were made in Edo Period .
Maybe arround middle 19th I think.

But almost of beads in 1st picure were made after Meiji Period I think.
Maybe from late 19th to eally 20th.

And Maybe beads in 1st picure were not made for OJIME.
Please check the size of thier holles.
Normally OJIME beads made in Edo Period have a large enough holls for strands.
But beads made after Meiji not for OJIME have small holles.
And their body size are from miniature size to normal size.

I think 1st picture here from my collection are same type as your beads in 1st picture of your post.
Speaking to my beads,the smallest one (blue one) is 6mm diameter and the center bead is 16mm diameter.
Even the holl of center bead is not enough for OJIME.

And 2nd picture here is from History of beads(2nd edition).
Please check P234 and P235.

I believe that your beads in 1st picture of your post and my beads in 1st picture here and the strand in middle of 2nd picture(from History of beads) here are same type of beads. (the strand in most inside looks older made in Japan.)

SHINJI

For what purpose were the Meiji beads made?
What were the Japanese doing with them 100 years ago?
Were the beads made for export to minority Asian peoples, or for European-style jewelry, or what?

I know the Meiji period is when Japan studied Western technology, government, and finance and made itself into a world power. How such small items as beads also played their part in this history would be interesting to know.

Today we collect modern Japanese lampwork beads as works of art, yes?

Before Edo we Japanese didn't have a culture wearing Necklace except Ainu people in Hokkaidou.
Ainu Necklace always include Edo glass beads, but thier holes are not small like Meiji(or later) beads.

Accually I don't know
What were the Japanese doing with them 100 years ago? Were the beads made for export to minority Asian peoples, or for European-style jewelry, or what?

I can only say, even in Japan It's very very very hard to find that kind of glass beads now.

After Meiji Japanese fashion was Westernized.
So some Japanese may have tried to wear that kind of Necklace,but not so many I think.
From late 19th to eally 20th Japan tried to export so many crafts like ceramics and glass wears to Azian counties.
I think that kind of glass beads are also made for mainly export.

Venetian millefiori beads manufactured in the 1900s-1930s were so totally forgotten that when they began to appear in U.S. markets in the 1970s, people conveniently imagined they were hundred of years old.

I have had these for many years and know very little about them.

Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Wayne

How about the size of your beads and the size of thier holes.

SHINJI

I don't know what that signifies, if anything, just an observation.

I should work on a Japanese glass bead timeline. As often happens, collector-information is sometimes garbled or just confused. There are significant historical events that precipitated and affected the manufacture of glass beads in Japan. The first is that Western Asian (and Indian or Indian-inspired) glass beads were traded into Japan, and found to be desirable (in antiquity).

Lampworked beads were instigated by Venetian beads—and the early products do resemble Venetian products. But there was also cross-pollination—because there is a class of Venetian beads that clearly attempt to imitate the refined sensibility of the best Japanese beads. But, in any event, the Japanese developed their own idiom of bead styles. It is not always clear how to realistically distinguish between Edo and Meiji products, and those later beads inspired by them, and resembling them, but made primarily for export. The export beads, of course, are from later times. Likewise, the determination that some of these beads "are ojime" is probably mistaken in many instances.

In the early 20th C., Japanese manufacturers opened factories in China—and thus instigated the lampworking industry in Boshan. (However, there is also the possibility that the local German influence made a mark on Chinese glassworking as well.) I think it is reasonable to suggest that the Boshan glassworks were exploited to mass-produce "Japanese style" beads, primarily for export to trading partners—as opposed to the glass beads they made for themselves—the output of which was limited and expensive. In-part, the limited receipt of Japanese beads (for instance, by the Ainu) probably inspired having beads manufactured elsewhere. Boshan beads likewise quickly evolved away from Japanese styles, and emerged as recognizable Chinese beads. A view of the quite variable beads made at Boshan (collected by Elizabeth Harris, and given to The Bead Museum) is eye-opening.

Later in the 20th C., Japanese industries adapted Czech and/or Indian procedures and made similar beads. (The Indian beads were probably likewise instigated by Czech practices. How these transfers were accomplished is not precisely known.) The Cherry Brand beads are one example of Japanese beadmakers creating a Czech-like line of beads. Here is a decent online article on Japanese glass working: http://asianartnewspaper.com/the-beauty-of-japanese-glass/

Jamey