| Original Message: Re: Lukut Sekala |
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Hi Beadnik, The "Lukut sekala" (as I understand it) is a specific glass bead. It has a black base, and is decorated with appliques that are ochre-yellow and brick-red (two common Venetian colors—but also common in antiquity). The applique (I believe) is a bicolored twisted cane (a "retorto" cane) that has been laid down in a tiny compact circle, and then manipulated with a tool—becoming spiraled, and sometimes resembling like a "yin-yang" design. This makes it look like a piece of millefiori cane with a spiral pattern, but I think in fact it is not that. The beads also have (usually or often, but not always) a similar-looking decoration at or around the apertures of the perforation. (This is also a device found in Islamic Period beads, and suggests that the Lukut beads were intended to copy those beads. And, as mentioned here recently in another context, some similar-looking modern Venetian beads appear to copy Japanese beads with this decoration, that themselves copy Venetian beads. These earlier Venetian beads are or can be pretty much on-par with the Lukut beads. In other words, all of these beads share some characteristics that tend to jumble them together, and that make distinction problematic.) There are also other—let's say—varieties—of Lukut beads, that may have different surnames. These beads share certain characteristics with Lukut sekala beads, but are not the same in terms of details and colors. I think there has been some tendency to take this corpus of beads, that formerly had distinct names and characteristics, and lately to call them all "Lukut sekala" beads, even though formerly they were considered distinct and had their own names (in Borneo). Consequently, I hesitated to be so specific in discussing them with you in general terms—since I don't know WHICH Lukut beads you may have seen. Since you didn't realize these are glass beads, what material did you think they were composed from? Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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