| Original Message: Re: Generalizations |
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Hello Robert, If only understanding the permutations of rosetta beads were so simple as 'layer-number says how old it is.' There are a few valid generalizations, but there are also exceptions. There is also a LOT of guesswork involved. Because I have studied rosetta/chevron beads most thoroughly, since 1979, I think my observations and opinions hold the most water. I have been working toward a comprehensive book on these beads for over thirty years. But there are questions for which there are still no answers. The earliest chevron beads (ca. 1450 to 1600) typically had seven layers (with various predictable other features and variations). Actual chevron beads were ground-down on their ends (usually faceted) to reveal inner layers—which is what MAKES them "chevron beads." Otherwise they are either rosetta beads or star beads. From ca. 1600 (+ or -), rosetta beads more often had five layers, and were heat-rounded (so these are not "chevron beads")—though they are often similar-looking‚ having starry layers and a red/white/blue color scheme. In the mid-19th C., the first editions of rosetta/chevron beads with white base layers were made. We can only document a few specimens of this production. The beads are small (ca. the diameter of a pencil), and have ends that look "whittled" (are awkwardly faceted). In the early 20th C., the standard rosetta/chevron beads we all know and recognize came into existence. This was probably after 1917, and the Moretti Company probably made the first editions. From this time, the standard editions of star canes had either four or six layers—these being: white/red/white/blue (or green or black); and white/blue/white/red/white/blue (or green or black, etc.). Moretti Co. also supplied the Conterie (the Venetian consortium of beadmakers) with star canes. But they were most likely (eventually) not the ONLY makers of star canes. (There are also several editions of white star canes with colored external stripes.) Which brings us to your bead. Your bead looks like a five-layer bead that typically has a white/black/red/white/blue color sequence. Compare it the typical six-layer cane, and think of it as: "black for blue, and missing the white layer in-between the black and red layers." I speculate these canes/beads were made by a competing company in Venice/Murano. They did not exactly copy the Moretti sequence (perhaps they couldn't for guild reasons). And the work itself tends to be sloppy—as though the makers did not have much experience in rosetta bead manufacture. If the above is true—and until better information comes along, I suspect this is all good and valid reasoning—the odd five-layer beads are 20th C. beads. NOT "19th C." beads. They post-date the Moretti editions, and poorly copy them. So, the number of layers gives SOME information about the possible or probable time of manufacture. But it is far from the whole story. I recommend the articles I wrote on millefiori- and rosetta-beadmaking for Ornament magzine in 1982 and 1983; and the paper that appeared in the Proceedings Of The Glass Trade Bead Conference in 1983 (that combines information from both articles). Plus many past posts here. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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