| Original Message: getting the record straight, my final thought |
|---|
|
Dear John,
I’m sorry you think I’m trying to persist with rumors. I thought I made it clear that it was my intention to clear up misconceptions in the field. I’ve been out in the field with my chevrons for twenty years now and have on many occasions been approached with tales and rumors of beads and their origin. One of the beads I’m confronted with the most is your red bead. On not a few occasions I’ve had people come up and show me one of them and tell me how happy they are to have one of my beads. I then have to explain to them that they are of Italian origin and while they are beautiful beads, they are not mine. It’s not always what they want to hear. I’m often asked to provide information for people about their chevrons, and often I’m told by them where they got them and what they were told when they bought them. These stories are often in conflict. I am in a precarious position because I make the beads I make and because of the support you have given me. I’m expected to know about these things and to be up front and truthful. I have a serious interest in the chevron bead both from a contemporary production standpoint and from an historical standpoint. I have always tried to tell people what I believed was truthful about their beads. I was told years ago by a person of integrity, who I believed (Bob) that he got some beads from you. Today I saw Bob for the first time in four years and asked him about that conversation. He is getting on in years and allowed as how he may well have gotten mixed up on his source of the India beads. I certainly have no reason not to believe you. Bob has always been straight with me and so I took what he said then as the truth. Bob did buy red chevrons from you years back, of that he is sure and they sure looked like the real deal to me. I have one of his red India beads at home in my collection and will post an image of it when I return home. Perhaps someone on the forum will have better knowledge of its original source
So there is the source of my misconception on that point.
I believe that this forum is a place for collectors and historians alike to share their thoughts and to establish what is truthful through communication of knowledge. This bit about the red chevrons is a perfect example of this forum doing its job
My only point in any of this is to clear up the record about the famous red chevrons, which is very cloudy out in the collector field. I do think that it is relevant how many of these beads there are as many people are in possession of them with the impression that they are a rare bead and have invested in them thinking this. This is what I get told. Since they are a twentieth century bead and since your involvement with them is so recent and the knowledge of their origin is current as well as your knowledge of their scarcity or abundance, I feel it is important both for the collector market as well as the historical record to have this knowledge known openly. When I’m asked by a person out in the field if their red chevron is one of a dozen or one of a hundred or one of a thousand or one of several thousands, what am I to say? Shucks I don’t know? They say to me, “you know john, what’s the real story? “ Do you see my point? I think that there is enough lost knowledge about ancient beads to go around and any we can preserve from the present record is our duty to do, for future historians at the least. Otherwise why do we bother to try to figure out all this stuff about old beads anyway?
You are an important person in the world of beads John. You are a source, a resource, a collector and an historian. Not many people wear that many hats in this field. People look up to you for good reason and I am among them. I’m not trying to spread any rumors or build fires. I just would like to see things be understood as clearly and completely in the field of bead collecting as possible. Both for the good of the collectors and for the long term integrity of the knowledge base about these treasures we all love so much.
If you or Ruth feel I have hurt or offended you with this, I apologize.
I will continue to think that accurate knowledge about our bead passion is our greatest resource and that we all owe it to each other, to the collector field and to the beads themselves to gain and preserve this knowledge as accurately as possible and to the best of our ability.
Thanks for hearing me out
Art
All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
|
|