Hi again,
I was surprised too, that you, Carl, said „...fairly typical of Ghanaian work“ and understand better now (and no, I don´t think too, that there were stripes fallen out). If the edges, where the stripes were in, became that rounded, the other edges on the outsides of the bead and at the perforation, would became rounder, as they are. But I searched for this „typical“ shape at websites, showing beads from Ghana, and didn´t found any beads from there with a similar (melon-)shape. And by accident I found a sold strand at „African Trade Beads“, with similar looking beads, from shape and color (please see the link). I wouldn´t say, that my bead is the same, therefor it doesn´t look old enough, but these beads may be a kind of prototypes for the Ghanaian bead workers?!
Jamey, I never had to do with „Faience“ beads and so I read at „Wikipedia“ and an older post from you in 2006 here about these kind of beads and the question came up, if there is a „simple“ method/test, to find out, if a bead is made by the „faience“-technique or made by the „glass bead technique“. Any idea...? Thanks in advance...!! And best wishes for a great Sunday to all...