Were they run by a master with various apprentices and journeymen under him working diligently?
Or were they solo affairs in dark corners with one obsessed maniac working?
Were the beads originally made for specific buyers?
Or did the makers show up at local bazaars with their wares?
Were the makers conscripts?
Or were they well regarded by their patrons?
Was their work generational?
Did the makers typically have short lives, given industrial conditions at a primitive level? Probably
Dust dust dust, the killer of generations of stone and glass workers, the two materials that seem to stand the test of time in beads.
We can only speculate,
inquiring minds………………….

About copyists,
I would think that indicated a lack of imagination.

A modern day bead dustbin here shown
This in a dark corner where one obsessed maniac works