I would like to see the beads you discuss.

In the early '90s I bought a group of red Chinese glass beads, that were sourced in Thailand. But they did not come from Dr. Steve. These beads were more-red than the nearly-antique beads I have from China (acquired in the early '70s, and formerly called "Peking glass"), that are a more-dull and pale glass (that I suppose was mainly colored with manganese).

To my eyes, the earlier beads are closer to the expected color of tourmaline. The "Thai beads" (let's call them) are a more-strident red—and I made the assumption that this was imported European glass—since it is rather like the 1920s and later Czech beads most of us have seen repeatedly.

I the mid-90s I was able to buy some beads I found very attractive, that were represented as "new Chinese glass beads." These were carved, and composed from a bright intense fuschia-colored glass—that I don't recall seeing before nor since (among Chinese beads). And I would have to compare these to the color of tourmaline as well.

Jamey