| Original Message: Re: Venetian Millefiori Beads - Time Ranges and Styles |
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Hello Yankee, The revival of producing millefiori trade beads at Venice, in-earnest, began in about 1850, and lasted through ca. 1950—or 100 years. That is a reasonably short time, considering how long glass beads have been made. Within that 100 years, there are not many generalizations I would be confident to make. There are some changes in glass chemistry, equipment, and styles of beadmaking along the way that help date particular beads. Glass chemistry was advanced in the 1880s and again by the early 1920s—providing a new color palate (of mostly brighter glasses, like the bright, usually opaque, cadmium/selenium reds, oranges, and yellows). For technology, whale oil as a fuel for lamps (for lampworking), was changed to carborated gas—and this cleaner, hotter fuel is said to have made brighter clearer colors possible. Thankfully, the early-to-mid 1800s was also the time that sample cards became routine and widely available—and because some are dated, it's possible to more fully understand the times that beads were made, and what beads were made simultaneously. The times that the greatest numbers of millefiori beads were made was the 1920s. Statistically, because this is well into the 20th C., and closer to our time, the combination of recentness + greater numbers means that the majority of millefiori beads are 20th C. beads. The composite center of the cane element you show is quite different from the brecciated glass Carl shows. Your cane has a consistent longitudinal pattern, and pieces from one end of the parent cane would look reasonably similar to a piece from the other end of the cane. With breccia glass, the fragments are small, jagged broken fragments, and are discontinuous in the glass pudding—so the pattern, even though it is stretched and miniaturized, results in continually evolving variations in the conformation of the jagged pieces-in-a-matrix look; and cane pieces are far from identical. It is a random feature added to what are usually thought to be predictable creations—pictorial canes. So, the answer to your question is that your cane and Carl's beads are reasonably close in time; but made very differently. By the way, "murine" ("moo-REE-neh") is plural. If you want to speak of one piece, it is a "murina" ("moo-REE-nah"). I hope this helps. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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