| Original Message: Traditional usage |
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TRADITIONALLY, two inch beads -not cloisonné, but often round heavy beads- were used to hold a scroll flat when suspended as a wall hanging (not on the tabletop) in China, as well as other households when decorated in the Chinoiserie style. The first two inch round scroll weight beads I handled -in the early seventies- were not cloisonné but were antique inside painted spheroid clear glass ones. I am comparing the size & shape, not the material, with potential usage as scroll weights. I have never seen an antique or pre WWII round cloisonné bead two inches in diameter. Easily mistaken for cloisonné, I have experiened cylindrical champlavé scroll weights nearly two inches in length. And, I have seen huge antique champlevé "beads" as a decoration on a lamp base. Yes, lamp finials and ceiling fixture pulls are also wonderful options for beads in the age of electricity. But lamp pulls would probably be smaller than a two inch sphere; they would most likely have been chosen to fit comfortably in the hand. Enterprising merchants often export anything that can be resold at a profit. And what the end user does with it is normally of little concern to the seller. Actually, the only valid generalization is: "There is an exception to every rule." But we try to make generalizations because we learn from them. Generalizations can also provide insight when questioned...a hazardous sport. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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