| Original Message: Comments from Rick Sprague's article |
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One type of bead found in four basic colors (Pl. VIF) [round beads less than 1cm, in olive green, yellow, red, turquoise] with a sunburst design was purchased in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, purportedly with Boshan labels on the shipping crages, according to Sprague's informant. The sunburst design was not seen in the shops of Boshan. Sun Can Geng, engineer at the Beijing Glass Ware Factory, suggested that elaborate sunburts beads show to her in pictures (supplied by Elizabeth Harris) were probably from Hong Kong. Thus, they may have been made in Guangzhou (Canton) or a more-southerly manufacturing center instead of Boshan. [Here I interrupt to opine that they might also have been made in Boshan during the post-Liberation revival of the glass factories, and were simply purchased by Hong Kong buyers and sold there.] These beads were strung on elastic to be used as infant-girl bracelets, a specialty item prepared for sale and, thus, like the buttons in the grasslands, may have a wider distribution than simple strings of beads. At no time did we observe any specific type of decorated beads outside of a specific city area except for one case. In Beijing, a single small string of beads was purchased in an antique shop that included six modern Boshan-like decorated beads strung with several plain beads. The price was vastly inflated at a markup from Boshan of over 200%. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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