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Original Message:   Re: Borneo Dyak strand
Hi everyone,

I’m later even than usual getting into this. I’ve been in Thailand, celebrating new year with friends and family and only got back to the frozen north yesterday. Climate shock indeed.

Reading this thread, I’m surprised at how little regard there has been for the opinions of Jamey Allen, who has paid more attention to these Dayak heirloom beads than anyone else, or to the conclusions of Billy Steinberg who surely must know more about Venetian beads and their cultural imapct than most of the rest of us combined. I’m not saying we have to agree with them, far from it, but it’s foolish to dismiss what they say without a reasonable and well-researched discussion.

And I’m astonished that nobody has referred to Robert Liu’s articles or Peter Francis’s Asia’s Maritime Bead Trade (I’ll say it again, “the best bead book, ever, period”), or Heidi Munan’s work on Borneo beads (she has helpful pictures too), or, until yesterday, Manik Mank di Indonesia, because these would be the obvious sources to begin with in trying to figure out where these beads really come from.

I should say, as a disclaimer, that I know next to nothing about Venetian beads, and very little about post-Ming dynasty Chinese beads. I stay away, as much as possible, from heirloom beads because I think they should remain with the people who value them most and who only sell them because of the economic inequalities between ourselves and them. But I do spend a bit of time each year in Java, looking at, and for, ancient pottery, beads and bronze. When I’m there I live with friends quite near to Jember where a lot of the modern glass beads are made. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to them, except for the copies of ancient beads, but I must say, these don’t look like modern Indonesian reproductions to me. I have a lot of respect for Thomas(TASART)’s knowledge, and I’d love to see his evidence, or Juergen’s anonymous source’s also, for saying that they are. I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

But I am initially convinced by Coin-Coin’s scrupulous narrative about these beads’ provenance, and if it is correct, there’s even less likelihood of them having been products of the modern Indonesian glass industry which had very little presence or reach, if any, before the date when these were purchased, 1967.

So back to the beginning, where do these beads come from? Clearly, there’s no simple answer. I believe Mr. Steinberg when he says, on the basis of his own collections, that many of them are Venetian. As for the others, Peter Francis thinks they come from South China, possibly Quanzhou. That’s a tempting hypothesis. We tend to forget that the ports on the north coast of Borneo were major intermediate stops in the trade between China, India and Europe from Tang dynasty times on. Since Peter made that suggestion, there’s been very little new evidence to back it up. But China is a huge and inventive counttry that has always been in the technological forefront, and I wouldn’t write it off, though personally, I think the chances of Quanzhou having been a bead-making centre are slight; Guangzhou is much more likely. Jamey has suggested Japan, and that seems a real possibility to me. India shouldn’t be written off either.

Personally, I’m intrigued by the beads that Juergen likes least; the combed polychrome tubular beads on a green base. They seem to be later versions, perhaps early twentieth century (?), of the combed beads that are so valued by the Paiwan people in Taiwan. Quite similar beads have also been found in small quantities in Yunnan and are dated to the Yuan dynasty (I’ll attach a pic of two of them that were given to me by a very kind friend). I think the most likely source for the modern versions of these beads would have to be South China, or possibly Japan.

I’ll attach another, totally unbeady, image of the kind of thing I go to Java for, the head on top of a Dong Son period bronze limepot that dates from 500 BCE to 300CE. Actually it does have a suspension loop on top, so I guess it could be worn as a pendant!

Best,

Will

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