This is a fantastic article as it serves to identify a type of bead seen quite often in the African trade. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has these beads in their collection. And, there is pretty firm confirmation of the origin of the "man-in-the-moon" type tabular bead.

I would hope for simplicity's sake that "Bavarian" would be a good term to use for those beads formerly known as "Dutch" (rather than "Fichtelgebirge" which is a little more difficult to remember and spell properly).

I would appreciate the authors' feedback on some beads pictured here to make sure I understand their findings. I received all these beads from dealers in African trade beads, except for the "berry" beads, which were obtained from a dealer in North American artifacts. They all appear to be somewhat irregular wound beads with large holes.

The first two photos show beads that are around 16-18 mm diameter with roughly 5 mm holes. I found the article's discussion of the use of the mineral Proterobas to make opaque black glass especially informative, since the large, presumably furnace-wound black beads shown here have always impressed me by their slightly different sheen and color when compared to old Venetian beads.