| Original Message: Ongoing debate |
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Similar beads with highly tapered holes, especially the red/white/black versions, appear on trade bead strands now & then. Some are large, 20 mm or more, some are small. The conical holes seem to point in the direction of tong-molded beads from Bohemia. I agree that the colors look atypical for Venetian, and the white in particular seems to be a greasy grey upon closer inspection. The red/white/black pattern appears to match some of the larger, irregular aja beads that are a bit more common than the bicones. These pictures are beads from my collection - bicones, and the somewhat color-matching aja (three of them - the fourth is a more conventional-looking striped one). I'm tempted to think that the folded bicones were an experiment by the Czech, using some of the same glass that was being drawn into cane for beads that were ultimately flattened into aja. We know the Czech / Bohemians made a lot of drawn beads, but were not producing a lot of fancy lampwork. So is it possible the folded pad bicone beads were an attempt to make some fancier, individual beads? There are also people who think these were made in India at about the same time as the hey-days of Venetian and Czech beads. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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