There is an ancient group of beads that are typically black, with white trails that have been combed into zigzags, of Middle Eastern origin. Some of these have an opaque brick-red trail over the white trail—thus being bicolored.

There is also a group of European trade beads, that have a very similar appearance. However, the red glass is translucent. And I have proposed that these beads copy or imitate the ancient beads—and that they date from post-1825, this being the provisional time that the Venetian industry seems to have begun exploiting translucent red glass. However, since it seems that the Bohemians had this glass earlier, I say it's possible such beads MIGHT be fom earlier than 1825, and made in Bohemia. (Unfortunately, there is no explicit documentation that supports these ideas; and this was before the time that sample cards became an industry standard.)

But, in any event, we can distinguish between the ancient beads and modern beads because of the differences in the opacity-or-translucency of the red glasses. Also (and very important!), is the fact that the ancient beads were furnace-wound; and the modern beads are lampworked. It is fairly common that the trade beads have been passed-off as "ancient" beads.

The beads you are showing us look like yet another iteration. They don't really look like either previous group. But they might be inspired by either group. I asked about the diaphaneity of the red glass as a beginning.

Unfortunately, photos, while being much better than nothing, cannot substitute for being able to examine a bead in-person. What I see are some characteristics that are difficult to comprehend, unless I can see the conformations in-the-round.

But I have to suspect these are recent beads. And the candidates are Java (but not excluding India or China—though these seem less-likely). Your beads also seem to be somewhat smaller than the beads they imitate.

I will show some past dialogues.

Jamey

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